Halysraft Mission

Remitag, 3rd prime post-Tumultuous

Dryali was finishing breakfast, mentally preparing to go hanggliding on his own equipment for the first time, when Valan tapped him on the shoulder.  "Boss wants to see you in her office, stat," Valan said.  Dryali quelled any inner dismay he felt, nodded at Valan, and rose.  He saw Valan talking to Tahu and Terrance as he ascended the stairs.

Tuala was already in Arnari's office, coffee cup in hand, one of his tails twitching with curiosity.   Dryali took a chair, observing Arnari's desk was clear, and Terrance and Tahu entered.  "You wanted to see us?" Tahu asked politely.

Fine Branch entered, carrying a chair.  She positioned it somewhat behind the semicircle of chairs and sat down.

Arnari said, "I have a longer and more dangerous mission for you."  She glanced at them the same way she usually looked at new Freelancers, then continued, "There's a settlement on Kizil called Halysraft."

Everyone raised their eyebrows; Kizil was the closest thalassa outward from Duquesne, but it still was quite a ways away.  Often it graced the Duquesne skies with rainbow halos.  A settlement?

"It's mostly broken down airships that can float, some large barges, and rafts of kelp, and is a trading settlement that does… okay business with the water-breathing denizens of the thalassa.  Now, they are having problems and Chelbesa, the Marshal, needs help to figure out the source of these problems, and perhaps solve them."

Tahu ventured, "What kind of problems?"

"They trade with a triton and Sea elf city," Arnari replied, "But fish and oyster gathering has gone down, and shark attacks are up."  She paused, frowning a little, and said, "Also, they are having trouble keeping Halysraft in place… they use sails and plesiosaurs to keep it in place."

Dryali stirred.  "Should use more mechanical means, for that."  Arnari replied, "Not a lot of appropriate raw materials."

"Do they not have airships come in?" Dryali scoffed.  "Plesiosaurs are easier," Arnari said simply.

"Anyhow," she continued, "Marshal Chelbesa will pay 500 gp each, to solve these problems."

Fine Branch spoke up, "That's what we do," and everyone in the room exuded a satisfied attitude about the prospect of earning 500 gp.

Arnari looked at everyone individually again, then said, "If you are willing to do this, the elemental airship Puttachi is leaving for Kizil tonight.  Demaria Cloudblood is the captain.  You have all day to prepare; it's about a prime's travel."  She hesitated, then announced, "So… while I enjoy your contributions to Freelancers here, you might want to consider going on, to Commerce.  Ripa Daneo would make good use of your talents.  I will warn Damakaios, who runs the Freelancers Tavern there, you are coming."

Fine Branch repeated, "Warn?"  

"Will tell him to expect you," Arnari corrected, waving her hand lazily.

Dryali asked, "How long do you think we'll be on the thalassa?"  What a weird concept, on a thalassa.  "No idea," Arnari said.

Dryali mused, "Anything we should have?"

"Potion of water breathing," Fine Branch replied saucily.  "Bathing suit," Tahu said, not to be outdone.  Arnari made a face, then said, "It's going to be wet.  There will be water.  Terrance's ring of swimming gonna be useful, as well as water breathing.

"You have young gryphons in our stables.  If you want to go to Commerce, we'll transfer them safely," Arnari added.  "...are you?"

"Hell yes," Terrance said.  Everyone else nodded.

"Go.  Prepare, make your goodbyes."

They filed out, and went looking for potions of water breathing, and managed to find 10 for 1000 gp.  Since some of them had a potion, Fine Branch took 4 of the potions and made sure everyone else had 2 each.  They also found 5 oils of slipperiness for 125 gp each.  Dryali and Tuala each bought one.

Fine Branch bought a fish bowl.  Dryali realized he had no idea about insects on a thalassa.  He bought another jar of insect repellent, 3 sacks, and 5 days' of rations (just in case).

Two hours after dark, the five Freelancers found themselves boarding the Puttachi, the air elemental in its cage muttering in Primordial, "Let's go, let's go, let's go."  The hull seemed strangely shaped; on closer look it had extra floats folded up against it, so it could land on a thalassa.

Fine Branch was carrying two new buckets and a fish bowl, and Dryali looked tiny, carrying a pair of giant elk antlers.  But they were settled in their cabins, and soon on their way out of the Cliffshadow port.

Day one after leaving Cliffshadow started out fairly clear.  Duquesne still loomed large to someone looking over the portside, inward and forward, the trailing eddies obfuscating the view of Hindmarsh and the plains beyond.  Pembroke, orbiting far eastward of Duquesne, was relatively small.  Kizil was not in view; it was on the far side of the central storm.

As the day progressed, the Puttachi caught up with some clouds, and it felt like hard-driving drizzle, as the airship's boundary wasn't enough to slow the drops that much as they crossed.  Everyone who could, went belowdecks.

Day two they were above one layer of clouds, but were between two groups, and it was windy and cooler.  As the Daystar reached their zenith, Dryali and Fine Branch spotted off the two birds to starboard in the distance that seemed to be flying very fast.  Terrance and Tuala were looking off the port side at the clouds.

Dryali said, "I see something…?  coming."  Fine Branch said, "Definitely something."  Terrance pointed to a cloud.  "Is that a tree?" she asked Tuala, who cocked his head and said, "Kinda?"

They got closer and it was obviously a pair of quetzalcoatl.  "We saw these before!" Dryali exclaimed to Fine Branch in amazement.  "Same ones we chased away before!"  Fine Branch agreed, "We chased them away last time." <narrator voice:  that would be during Pembroke Errands, three eigths prior.>

Tuala looked at the rapidly approaching creatures.  "So... dangerous?"  Dryali and Fine Branch nodded.  Tuala sank a firebolt in the one further astern.

• Dryali noticed the quetzalcoatl didn't look nearly as starved as they had during the last encounter.  He pulled out his arcane firearm and also sank a firebolt in the one further astern.  It plummeted, momentum carrying it below the Puttachi.
• Terrance was taken aback.  She really had thought the shape in the cloud was a tree, and these creatures were naturally flying towards it.  Thinking this might be a bad thing, she nonetheless pulled out her short bow and sank an arrow into the approaching quetzalcoatl.
• The quetzalcoatl flew right up to where Dryali was on the airship, and misestimated momentum, so its jaws closed on thin air.  Then it dove under the airship.
• Tahu, not sure if it could come back up the other side, loaded his light crossbow and waited.
• Fine Branch mounted Nighthawk and flew about 30' off the starboard side of the airship.  Seeing the quetzalcoatl was actually diving towards its unconscious friend, she cast a twice-uplevel'd guiding bolt on it, then spiritual weapon shaped like a lasso, killing the creature.
  • Captain Demaria, unsure whether Fine Branch would actually cross the airship's boundary, started slowing the Puttachi.
  • Fine Branch and Nighthawk flew back to the airship.

Captain Demaria, visibly relieved, told the Freelancers, "I am happy you are here!  They try to grab people and get off the ship, that is hard to deal with."  She resumed speed.

Days three, four, and five they had very nice weather.  [what does Pembroke look like?]  Despite the obvious forward motion of the ship, it just felt like they were slowly rising away from Duquesne and upwards to Pembroke.  On day five, they were outward of Pembroke, and looked below at it, the twin mountaintops poking about the obfuscating tornados.  A wall of clouds was above them and to the east.

"That's the shear line," the captain told them, and shifted the airship's trajectory towards it.  Dryali, Fine Branch, and Tuala nodded, having been through this on their way to Duquesne.

Late that night, the ship shuddered and shook as it crossed the shear line into the skyway.  <narrator voice: Earth people would call this a jet stream, except these are bigger, and have weather.  For shear line, look at a close up picture of Jupiter.>

Days six, seven, and eight the Puttachi raced within the winds of the skyway, made turbulent with the flanking weather.  Dryali, Tahu, and Fine Branch handled this poorly, and were out of commission for the first two days, airsick.  Poor Tuala had it even worse, and was violently airsick for all three days.  Fine Branch lent Tuala one of the buckets as he heaved and heaved.

Dryali, feeling better after the first two days, used his all-purpose tool to acquire the prestidigitation cantrip and use it to make the berths less full of sick.

Day nine they awoke to the ship shuddering slightly as it crossed out of the skyway.  They came on deck to see above and forward, surrounded by rainbows, the thalassa Kizil.  Occasionally the Daystar glinted off the water.  It was still quite a ways away.  They felt a little heavier, an unfamiliar sensation to Tahu and Terrance.

Tuala joined them on deck.  He looked exhausted, but also wanted to see the big thalassa.  As they all looked, they realized there was movement towards them.  Birds, perhaps?  These were not flapping like the quetzalcoatl, and seemed very white.  It was a flock of giant albatross!  Four soared towards starboard and were directly approaching the Puttachi.

Tahu pulled out his light crossbow and shot the one furthest forward.

• Fine Branch ducked into the stairway leading belowdecks, chanting "Cats cats cats cats cats cats cats" as she summoned spirit guardians.  "Come, stand near me!" she called out to the crew, and those who could, did.  She also summoned a spiritual guardian in the form of a clothing iron, alongside the starboard side of the airship, astern of Dryali.
• The albatross Tahu shot flew at Tahu, but Tahu was in range of the spirit guardian cats, and it disintegrated in holy radiance before it got to him. 
• Two albatross flew at Dryali, who popped shield to avoid their attacks.
• One albatross flew at Nighthawk, who was also on deck.  The spirit guardian cats burned it slightly, and it savaged him badly with beak and claw.
• Two more albatross flew up alongside the airship's port!  They also were burned with the holy radiance of the cats.
  • One pierced Tuala with its beak, but missed with its claws.
  • The other tried to attack Terrance, who avoided the attacks easily while managing to look like she was just standing there, cloak billowing.
• Dryali created a protector eldritch cannon, bolstering everyone on deck, including Nighthawk.
• Tuala was too exhausted to evaluate his options for subtlety.  He set a fireball off the starboard side of the airship, killing one of the albatross that attacked Dryali and severely burning the other.  Then Tuala quickened a spell and dropped the albatross which had attacked himself with magic missile.
• Terrance, cloak still billowing, drew her magic rapier and ran through the albatross which had attacked her.  As its chest plumage started growing a red splotch, it stiffened, then slid off her rapier, falling until it crossed the airship boundary and tumbled away in the wind.

Some barrels were secured to the deck forward of Dryali.  Tahu leapt on top of these and cried, "Avast!" as he drew his magic shortsword and struck the remaining albatross attacking Dryali.  It too stiffened, died, and fell away as Tahu's shortsword left its chest plumage stained with blood.

• Fine Branch moved the spiritual weapon to hit the albatross which had savaged Nighthawk, and cast toll the dead as a followup.  Nighthawk turned and attacked the albatross with his own beak and claws, and kept at it, eating the now-dead albatross.

Fine Branch cast cure wounds on Nighthawk, and Dryali was left feeling redundant.  As Nighthawk continued to savage the dead albatross' corpse, Fine Branch moved to the corpse of the bird that had attacked Tahu, gathering what feathers she could, since they were valuable.  She also got a number of feathers from the bird Nighthawk was eating.  Nighthawk, keenly aware some of his own plumage had been damaged, took some of the albatross feathers and stuck them in his wings.

Taking thought that the Freelancers were perhaps to deal with a shark, Fine Branch put some of the albatross meat into the buckets.  The others made it clear to her this was not to be kept in the sleeping berth.

Day ten and eleven, the Puttachi continued to fly up, although at an angle, intending to overtake the thalassa from below, then land from the east.  Coming up directly below would mean rain from the thalassa dripping, and perhaps contending with the trailing waterspouts; so it was from a slightly off angle.  Nonetheless the weather experienced on the airship was still very windy and damp.  Perhaps the rainbows made up for it.

They overshot the thalassa, and turned to approach it.  There were no other airships in sight.

Remitag, last prime post-Tumultuous

No pilot on a peregrine gryphon greeted them as they rushed towards the approaching wall of water, and the Freelancers glanced in alarm at Captain Demaria.  She grinned, cocked her head, and said, "Halysraft does not have a Pilot's Guild," in a tone that implied, what did you expect.  Then they hit the Kizil Boundary.

Despite the air elemental helping in the nose of the ship, it bucked and shuddered as it crossed the boundary at an angle, and the Freelancers lost their balance.  Later they would realize this experience was a consequence of the thalassa shape and part of the saying "Thalassae obey their own rules."  For now, Tuala looked like he was green under his fur, as he crawled to the side of the deck in case he had to heave again.

And then they were through, into the relatively calm air near the thalassa, and it felt like they were climbing up the wall of water, as the airship made its way to the outward-facing surface.  Flying was smooth, and a groaning sound came from below as the crew worked to extend the sea floats out from the hull.  The morning light of the Daystar at first just showed a nigh featureless, deep blue-green water.  As they got closer to the water surface, they made out whitecaps, waves, blotches that were kelp forests maybe?  Every once in a while, a deep, deep gleam that wasn't the reflection of the daylight.

The bright daylight reflections made Dryali very unhappy.  As they got closer, it became overcast, but the daylight reflections and glare persisted.

They saw in the distance what looked like a brown mishmash.  The Captain said, "That's' Halysraft," and started calling out orders.  The Puttachi splashed down, and pulled into a large, flat barge floating on the water.  Two other airships were attached at the ends.  Then all was in busyness as the airship was secured, and crew came to load/unload supplies.

The Freelancers again got all their stuff, debarked from the airship, and looked around again, Dryali again feeling vaguely ridiculous with his giant elk antlers.  Not enough to get rid of them, though.  A full ⅓ of their view was occupied by barges, rafts, old airships, and whatnot.  Other than that, and the nearby docked airships, was flat blue-green water all the way to the horizon.  A fair number of planks, or rope-and-plank bridges connected the different barges.  While there was less movement than the Freelancers had imagined, it was still enough that the wood and rope creaked incessantly.

The Freelancers looked at each other, then cast about more carefully.  The loading crews ignored them.  The people around them spoke a language mix of Trade, Primordial, and Elvish.  There weren't many fishing boats in sight.  To their left, were more run down rafts, which perhaps meant a "shadier" part of town.  To the right were broken-down airships; although they floated, didn't look like they could handle the adversity of angry waters.

Terrance was entirely out of her element.  She cast about for trees, but all she saw was a forest of masts.  She looked more closely, and saw in the center of the rafts, an area with plants in small tubs.  They appeared to be food-producing, not decorative.  She pointed it out to the others; Captain Demaria had told them the marshal could be found there.  Terrance listened for the song of the trees, but only heard wood and rope creaking, and her heart sank a little.  None of the Freelancers said anything, but they were all wondering where so much wood came from.

They started heading toward the central barge with the plants:  five Freelancers, all their stuff, and a burgundy hippogryph in tow.   As they neared the barge, they saw next to it a fairly large, old watership, the nameboard proclaiming it The Sea Horse's Fin.  Across from it, on the central barge, they saw a house-like structure.  The Freelancers realized that was where they could find the marshal.

They stopped and debated.  "We are here, should we check in with the marshal?" Terrance wondered.  Tuala looked at his compatriots, including Dryali with the giant elk antlers, and Fine Branch with two buckets of pungent albatross meat.  "Inn first.  Let's not show up with all our stuff, to talk to the marshal," he suggested.  They all agreed and headed toward The Sea Horse's Fin.  Tuala's reminder left Dryali trying to shake the sense that Arnari kicked me out, even though that was patently not what had happened.

As they boarded the large deck – waterships have much larger decks than airships – a tanned female half-elf, her hair a faded blue, approached.  "Let me take the hippogrpyh!" she exclaimed in delight, "we have stabling in the stern."

"And who are you?" Dryali asked, "I am Paiva," she introduced herself, "a stablehand here; if you are looking for rooms, talk to Tyronda," she waved at a broad staircase descending below decks.  Fine Branch let her take Nighthawk, and she led him away, murmuring "Oh, you are such a pretty hippogryph, yes you are!"

Nighthawk preened.

The Freelancers descended the broad stairway.  Within was a galley converted to a bar, with various patrons.  Clearly in charge, a female human behind the bar called out, "Welcome to Halysraft!  How long you staying?  Will you be needing rooms at our Fine Inn?"

This person was of course Tyronda, and the inn had plenty of rooms, and they took individual rooms for 1gp/night.  Nighthawk was also 1gp/night.  Tyronda started collecting gold and handing out keys.

"What brings you to Halysraft?" she asked, "And, can I offer you lunch?"  Tuala grimaced, and said, "I'll pass."  Tyronda said, "It's part of the room fee!"  Terrance said, "I certainly will not pass!"

Tahu said, "We're here to help, with some troubles."  Tyronda's demeanor changed.  "Oh, you are Freelancers!"  They glanced around the bar to check for unfriendly reactions.  Nothing.  "We've been having so much trouble, especially the pearl divers."  Up close, they realized she was wearing a pearl necklace of varying sizes, the large of which would be worth 100gp on most skyliths.  She nodded firmly.  "Let's get you settled and lunch, before talking to the Marshal."

The Freelancers farmed out to their individual rooms, and settled their items.  Then Tuala laid down for a short rest while the others returned to the galley for a delicious lunch of seaweed salad and fish fritters.

While they ate, they occasionally chatted with Tyronda, but mostly listened to the talk around them.  Apparently, The Sea Horse's Fin was popular locally.  Dryali and Tahu overheard griping about how dangerous it was to go pearl diving, and two people in the corner annoyed about Halysraft not "being in the right spot."  They stood out, one person was Bronze dragonborn.   Dryali and Tahu wondered, right spot for what?

* * session break * *

Dryali tried to figure out if "the right spot" was the place Halysraft should be normally, or if they were concerned about it being in a new spot they wanted it to be.  He couldn't tell.

Tuala reappeared as they were finishing lunch, still looking off.  His fur was just all disarrayed, like a cat that did not feel well.  Nonetheless, he was still up for heading over to talk to the Marshal.

They headed over to the barge with the plants, and saw as they got closer that indeed the plants were food plants, not decorative.  The Marshal's office was in the wheelhouse of this barge, and the Freelancers entered to face a seated male half-elf and a female human, well-armed and in leathers, who were less than pleased to have 5 extremely well-equipped strangers appear.

The half-elf rose, eyeing the Freelancers, and exclaimed, "What!?  Who are you, what do you want?"  His eyes narrowed.  "You here to see the Marshal?"

Terrance was unimpressed, "Yes, we are," she said coolly.  The half-elf nodded, and sank back down on his seat.  "Veena will show you the way."  Veena nodded, and gestured for them to follow her through the doorway.

She led the Freelancers down a set of steps and then a passageway.  She opened a door to a small office, with a human at the desk.  He was tan, his dark hair somewhat bleached by the Daystar; tan lines were evident at the edges of his studded leather.  They were beginning to realize metal armour was unusual in Halysraft.  He was armed with a scimitar and two daggers, and rose to greet them.

"Freelancers?"  he said, and they nodded.  "Are you here to help with our strange problems?"  Veena withdrew.

"Well, we are either here to help," Fine Branch quipped, "Or to depose the Marshal."  Tahu gave Fine Branch a side-eye, then said mildly, "We made it past the bodyguards, so we're probably not the latter."

Chelbesa waved vaguely for them to make themselves comfortable – his office didn't have all the chairs Arnari's did – and sat back down.  He outlined the three biggest problems, "The pearl divers are getting attacked.  The fishermen are not really catching many fish.  Normally, Halysraft is held in place by plesiosaurs, but they are somehow not doing this."

Tuala:  are there no fish, or are they escaping nets?
Dryali:  is a shark chasing them away?
Tahu:  how is the food supply?
Chelbesa:  we're not on rations yet.  You might ask the fishermen why.  The pearl divers, though… they've been getting chased off by rather large sea turtles.  I can introduce you to Koetya, who leads them.  They are on the opposite side of Halysraft than the airship docks.  The plesiosaurs –
Dryali <holds up a hand>:  wait, wait, wait.  Do you have a reason to think all these are related?
Chelbesa:  That's why you're here.  If giant snapping turtles are going after the divers … I'm not sure about the fishermen … But, the plesiosaurs are not getting injured; the rafts are just in the wrong place.
Fine Branch <sarcastically>: I bet someone is drawing dicks on the plesiosaur stable.
<Freelancers laugh>
Terrance: but would these have been human dicks, or plesiosaur dicks?
Chelbesa <unamused>: Talk to Nemea, if you want to find out about plesiosaurs.
Dryali:  the rafts being out of place could be the root cause of woes.
Tuala:  not if the others still go to the same place.
Chelbesa:  Koetya is the pearl diver boss.  Arbetman – he's human – leads the fishermen.  Those two are the opposite side from the air docks.  Plesiosaurs are on the north side.

The Freelancers nodded and left.  Suspecting the rafts being out of place was indeed the key to it all, they headed north.

They headed towards the north part of Halysraft, but really only could tell by orienting the barge with the plants behind them and the airship docks on their right.  The route wasn't that direct, as they crisscrossed between the barges and rafts on rope-and-wooden bridges, surrounded by incessant creaking.  Some of the barges had shops: trade, trinkets, supplies, some food.  One shop in particular seemed fancier; a large bottle in the window, animated with bubbles.

They got a sense the entire place was roughly oval, with the long axis north/south.  Perhaps that was because of the currents.  

They rounded some low buildings and were quite abruptly on the edge of the barge, with unbroken water stretching out in front of them to the curving horizon.  Unbroken, that is, except for the half-dozen+ plesiosaur heads out of the water, harnesses reaching back to the edge of the barge.  The harnesses were not taut.

The Bronze dragonborn which Dryali and Tahu had noticed at lunch was standing on the edge, tossing fish to plesiosaurs.  The Wind sagani was adjusting harnesses.

The Freelancers looked at each other, then wandered over to where these two people.  The Wind sagani muttered something to the plesiosaur, patting it right above the harness, and it swam out until the harness was taut.  They felt the slight pull on the barge.  She stood up, saw the Freelancers.

"Can we help you?  You seem… new here," she said.  The Bronze dragonborn kept tossing fish.

Intrigued, Tahu asked, "Can you tell?"  She gestured at her skin, and her clothing, made from the hide of some water creature; which were both fairly weathered.  "You don't look like you've been on the thalassa for a while," she explained.

Tahu went back to the reason they were there.  "Marshal sent us; you sound like you need help."

Her face changed.  "Oh!  I'm Nemea, this is Delev" – she gestured to the Bronze dragonborn – "we're responsible for keeping Halysraft in the right position."

So!  Here was the person the Freelancers were most interested in talking to, and a long conversation resulted.  Delev joined soon after he ran out of fish.  The Freelancers were as curious about the entire thing as they were about the "problem", and it showed.

Fine Branch: how do you tell the right position?
Nemea: mostly by stars, but it's been drifting further away from where the pearl divers and fishermen want, Arbetman tells me.
Terrance:  how long have you been doing this?
Nemea <thinking>:  5-6 years?  I didn't think I'd like it so much…
Tuala:  how is this [the drift] manifesting?
Nemea: who are you, anyhow?
<Tuala pulls out his enameled black, white, and blue Freelancers' badge>
Nemea: ah, the Marshal sent you.
Nemea: it's annoying not being near the preferred pearl divers and fishing spot; the drift has moved us away from the ideal trade route from the Sea elf city of Buhayra.  It gets to be a disaster, though, if we drift too far, and the currents carry us to where we'd fall.
Terrance:  is there someone who benefits from this?
Nemea:  we are the only air breathing settlement on the thalassa.
Tahu:  are there other cities underwater?
Nemea:  other cities underwater are on the underside of the thalassa; we have strong ties with Buhayra.
Terrance:  how is plesiosaur morale?
Dryali <interrupting>:  actually, you've not told us how it's drifting.  What changed?
Nemea <glancing at Delev>: it seems… a bunch of different factors.  Some times, the water shifts.
Delev:  sometimes, plesiosaur gets confused and swim in wrong direction.
Nemea:  we talked to the plesiosaurs; they don't really remember what happened.

This sounded like magical interference.  Tuala cast back, thinking about what could cause such a phenomenon.  He considered speak with animals, which clearly Nemea used for the plesiosaurs.  Dominate beasts would do it.

Fine Branch had a different idea.  She walked up to the edge of the barge, and leaned out over the water near the plesiosaurs, and rattled off a string of incredible insults in Primordial.  Tahu, Tuala, and Dryali looked at her in surprise.

Nemea:  whoa, good thing no Rain sagani are here!
Dryali: what was that all about?
Fine Branch:  On Duquesne, we've been noting a rash of elementals trying to move in to peopled areas.  Was trying to find out.
Terrance:  so, you insult them?  Why don't you think they are more mature than that?
Fine Branch <defensively>:  the ones on Duquesne weren't!
Dryali:  we're on a thalassa!
Tahu:  on a boat on a thalassa!
Dryali <to Nemea and Delev>:  have you kept a watch?
Delev:  we've tried; not seen anything
Tahu:  do we think Halysraft people are sabotaging?
Dryali:  should we keep a watch, and be discreet?
Nemea:  would appreciate a good night's sleep!
Tahu:  do you have gaps in your own memory?
Nemea <slowly>:  …no, not really
<Delev shakes his head>
Nemea:  okay.  If you want to set a watch, come back after dinner, about an hour or two.  There's a place to put bedrolls
<Nemea gestures to a place near the building under a bit of an overhang.>
Tahu:  does anyone have a crash course in astronomy?
Tuala <happily>:  a crash course in astronomy!
Tahu:  I'm primarily concerned with being able to tell if we are moving, and whether we are going in the right direction.
Tuala <excitedly>:  I can tell if we're moving!  … I can't tell if it's the right direction.
Tahu:  Nemea will have to show us
<Nemea crosses arms across chest and nods>
Terrance:  let's wander

They took their leave of the plesiosaurs, and wandered southward.

As they crossed southward and partially westward, Dryali asked, "Pearl divers?  Sounds like fisherman guy is too angry to deal."  Terrance said, "I agree!"

The Freelancers crossed from raft to barge to raft, heading southwest.  They had no insight whatsoever if they were using normally-travelled pathways or not.  There were fewer shops, and they seemed more of a practical bent.  After about 20 minutes, the shanties and wheelhouses opened up into an area that looked like docks, except for water ships.  South of them, some ships were docked, masts stabbing the sky.  In front of them, smaller boats were docked.  The creaking and movement from the water seemed louder here, and the afternoon Daystar reflected off the water in their faces, giving Dryali a proper headache despite his goggles.

The dock had some Rain sagani, their leathers wet, hard at work unloading a boat; nets were tethered to the southwest corner of the dock, and oysters and oyster shells were piled nearby.  Dryali noticed that occasionally, grey and white birds with long beaks would try to steal an oyster; one of the Rain sagani chased it away.

One of the Rain sagani, a female, was seated at a bench, not moving around.  When they realized she was binding a wound in her calf bleeding out, Tahu and Fine Branch hurried over to her, the former pulling out his ever-present healer's kit.  As he looked her over with a practiced eye, Tahu noticed it appeared to be a wound from some sort of beak; multiple scars from similar older bites adorned her limbs.  Both Tahu and Fine Branch observed that she was being very careful to avoid having the blood spread, or drop down into the water.

Tahu offered to apply his healer's kit, and the Rain sagani accepted his offer.  He deftly closed the wound, and the Rain sagani, who turned out to be Koetya, thanked him.  "Fortunately, we managed to get a few pearls today," she added, as the other Freelancers also approached.

Tahu:  what is it that bit you?
Koetya: a snapping turtle.  Normally, we've been getting oysters <hesitates, points> in the kelp forests – bother, with the drift, I'm not sure where to point –
Tahu:  sounds terrifying.  Have there always been turtles?
Koetya:  normally not so aggressive.  It's their habitat; but there've been more than usual.
Fine Branch:  so… they are where we expect them, but they are more aggressive?
Koetya: there are way more.  Normally, there's one a quarter; easily avoidable.  Now?  1-2 a day, and they are coming for us.
Tahu:  also terrifying.
<Tahu puts his healer's kit away>
Tahu:  is it mating season?  Are they migrating and being territorial?
Koetya:  not in the kelp forest; they mate elsewhere.
Tuala:  so unusual.  How many a day?  <realizes she said that.>  unique, are these.
Koetya <frowns>:  not looking that closely.  We're too busy trying to get away
Tuala:  in retrospect, that was a dumb question.
<silence>
Koetya:  are you… the Freelancers the Marshal sent for?
Tuala:  that's us!
Koetya <nods>:  I'll stay in the boat, and I can take you.
Dryali:  do they ever come in the boat?
Koetya:  sometimes
Terrance:  they can see different turtles
Tahu:  gonna need a bigger boat
Fine Branch:  how would someone who cannot breathe water typically dive?
Koetya:  potions of water breathing.  Or… Belorit, who owns the potion shop, cast water breathing on you.
<the Freelancers raise eyebrows, thinking of the bubbling bottle in the window>
Koetya:  if you wandered around, you've seen it; the bubbly potion bottle in the window.  He maintains a shrine to Moana in the back of his shop, and for a fee, would cast water breathing on you.
Terrance:  what kind of fee?  Can we get a pearl diver discount?
Koetya <shakes head>:  Belorit doesn't give discounts.
Dryali:  how long does it take to get to the kelp forest?
Koetya:  a third of a day or so.
Terrance:  tomorrow, then!
Koetya:  yeah… not up for going out again today, with this leg.

The Freelancers took their leave, heading south to the other end of the water docks.

The Daystar sank lower in the sky, and the Freelancers debated whether they had enough energy to talk to the angry fisherman, but they decided they should, just to get a complete picture.  As they walked south along the docks, they saw shops for ship repairs, and sails; places where fish or pearls could be bought and sold; and, along the water, a dingy with coal stoves, selling fish on skewers.  It smelled delicious.

They got to the docks with the fishing fleet, which was a storm of busy-ness; the docks were messier than the pearl divers' docks; there were fish on the docks, in bins; nets tied up, and what looked like a whole mess of nets that were torn, with some people working on detangling & mending them.  One of the ships was partially out of the water, and getting pumped out by a combination of mechanics and the shape water cantrip; others were patching a jagged hole that possibly was caused by a very large bite.

In the center of the busy-ness was a clear leader, who was clearly angry, talking to another person.  Tahu was watching the ship in fascination, and Dryali was still fighting his headache from the Daystar reflections, but the others understood this was Arbetman, talking to Isgid, the captain of the unfortunate ship, about how the ship would no longer be seaworthy enough for fishing, but they could repair it well enough to add to The Raft (aka, Halysraft).

Everyone around them was muttering about angry sharks.  "The fish fought back," "Shark chewed up nets, then tried to eat the boat!"

Dryali used his eyes of the eagle to look at the ship, without moving closer.  The marks looked almost like an angry sawblade.  He murmured that to the others and they tried not to smile cynically, but they all murmured, "gonna need a bigger boat!"

Arbetman noticed and challenged them.  "Who are you?  What are you doing?  This is the fisherman's side of the dock!" 

Terrance:  we're Freelancers!
Arbetman:  it's about time!  Look at my nets!
Terrance:  looks like nets, to me
Tahu:  have you tried catching the shark?
Arbetman:  yes, look at our nets!
Dryali:  are you sure it's the same shark?
Arbetman:  yes, we're sure.  <pauses, thinking and calming down> it was 2 sharks, today; but we're pretty sure it's not more than 3.
Dryali <to other Freelancers>:  maybe, this more straightforward

They talk more to Arbetman and figure out the sharks are about 8' long, and swim pretty fast.  Fine Branch and Tuala move to help with the nearby torn nets with the mending cantrip; the ship is beyond all their skill, even Dryali.

Dryali:  does the shark attack in the same place?
Arbetman:  no; we fish in different places, to avoid overfishing any fishery.  The shark always tries to find it and attacks.
Fine Branch:  so, getting a shark attack is not a challenge.
Dryali:  do you ever get near the kelp forest?
Arbetman:  no, we avoid it; the kelp tangles the nets.
Fine Branch:  do sharks and snapping turtles get along?
Arbetman:  they tend to avoid each other; both are top predators.

After helping with the nets, the Freelancers headed back to The Sea Horse's Fin for dinner.  It had been an exceptionally long day, and even Tuala was hungry.

Dinner in the gally of The Sea Horse's Fin was kelp noodles and oysters, which tasted weird, but was nutritious enough.  If one took the stir-fried option, the food wasn't as… slimy; the galley patrons seemed to split evenly in that option, though.

Tuala and Dryali were both absorbed in the novelty of the mouth-feel, and were focussed on the food, but Fine Branch, Tahu, and Terrance noticed three well-dressed people at a table in the nearby corner: a male Wind sagani and two half-elves.  Their topic of conversation was trade; the Wind sagani, Alag, was looking for osprey gryphon eggs, since House Liona had expressed an interest in acquiring such.  The half-elves, Maesteas and Aric, were concerned about trade with Buhayra; they told Alag that trade had been disrupted, because Halysraft's drift had made the travelling time longer and the Sea elf caravans were more subject to attack.  The latest caravan had been delayed by eighths because of the danger.

Twilight waned, and with it the clear weather; the thalassa had encountered a cloud system and the weather was overcast and light rain.  As the Freelancers made their way back to the plesiosaur area with their bedrolls (Fine Branch also insisted on bringing her fish bowl), they realized the rain was cold.

"What the fuck, cold rain?" Dryali whined in dismay. "Cold rain, rain is not supposed to be cold!"  Tuala, though, was even more in dismay, as his plan of using his astronomy skills and skywatcher tools were rendered useless by the obscuring clouds.

They worked out a watch order for the long Kizil night:  Dryali, Terrance, Fine Branch, Tahu, Tuala.  Dryali wanted to be first so he could trance early and prepare spells more appropriate for what they were doing:  in particular, replace feather fall with detect magic, and invisibility with see invisibility.  As he planned this, the familiar flash of resentment came, that he had to to prepare a spell inherent to most of his people.  Terrance, who did not have darkvision, would use Tahu's goggles of night on her watch.

Dryali found a place out of the rain, to watch the plesiosaurs for any drastic change in their direction, which he suspected might happen from what Nemea had said.  He saw none; but definitely felt the barge was moving in a curve slightly eastward.  He wondered if that was an effect of the round thalassa.

Terrance paced, in a straight line, watching and doing her best to sense directional changes.  She felt nothing, although the pull slightly east was there, it was steady.  She tucked the goggles of night next to Tahu before taking her own bedroll.

Fine Branch put a ball bearing in the fish bowl, in an attempt to observe any directional change.  The ball bearing of course rolled around with the swell.  Frustrated and bored, Fine Branch went to the edge of the barge and put the fish bowl in the water, then pulled it up so the opening to it was submerged, and the water was held in the bowl.  She cast create or destroy water to destroy the water in the bowl, to watch the space fill up with water almost immediately.  She spent the rest of her watch contemplating the eastward drift, and whether or not that was supposed to happen.

When it was Tahu's turn to watch, Fine Branch filled the fish bowl with water again, and set it on the edge of the barge.  She yelled, "HERE, fishy fishy fishy!" which woke up all the others.  Grumbling, Terrance and Tuala went back to sleep; but Dryali had finished his trance, so he took the time to swap his spells, while Tahu took over the watch.  As Fine Branch settled in to sleep, Dryali sat with his chin on his knees, contemplating the events of the day.

Tahu, with the goggles on, wanted to make good use of them.  He held his breath and stuck his head underwater, to watch the plesiosaurs swim.  He pulled his head out, and used his Wind sagani abilities to dry his hair and look fabulous again; then, fascinated by the plesiosaurs, repeated it.

After a while, he jerked his head out of the water abruptly, shook the water out, then looked back again.  He glanced back at Dryali, who'd noticed the movement.  Dryali walked over there.  "I thought I saw something, almost a shadow, dart away," he told Dryali.

Dryali cast detect magic, and two of the plesiosaurs lit up with enchantment magic.  He told Tahu.  "Should we want up Fine Branch?" Tahu asked.  "No," Dryali told him.

"Do we want to dispel this?" Tahu asked, concerned.  "We don't know exactly what it is," Dryali told him.

Tahu was clearly doing down the road of what-if hell.  "What if it's good, and what keeps the rafts up?" he speculated, his concerns unmitigated.  "It would be on more [of the plesiosaurs]," Dryali replied, unruffled.

"They don't know us, maybe they'd attack us," Tahu declared.  "Let's just wait," Dryali advised.  So they did, in the cold rain, until it was Tuala's turn to watch, and Tahu settled into an uneasy sleep, after telling Tuala what to watch out for.

Tuala was not going to be sticking his feline head under the water, no matter what Tahu saw; disappointed the clouds continued, he paced back and forth, trying to assess the movement of the rafts and the plesiosaurs.  He also felt the eastward curve, and like Dryali, wondered if it was an effect of the round thalassa.

The dawn was breaking, grey and cold, at the end of Tuala's watch, his Freelancer compatriots asleep, other than the Dark elf, sitting and watching from the overhang.

* * session break * *

The Kizil dawn was not so spectacular, given the grey clouds overhead; the rain had faded to a miserable drizzle, but otherwise nothing changed.  Breakfast, and thus the return of Nemea and Delev, were still a ways off, so Dryali took over the watch from Tuala.

Everyone woke up with the light, but Fine Branch found her games with the fish bowl during watch had fully disrupted her rest; grumbling, she headed back to The Sea Horse's Fin to catnap in the comfort of a warm, dry bed.  The others tried to sleep as best they could.

Another couple hours passed, Dryali musing on the long day, and then he woke up Terrance to watch.  Tahu and Tuala also woke up.  It felt like the barge was no longer curving east; so as Terrance took over, he used a ritual to cast detect magic again, and checked the plesiosaurs.  Nothing lit up.

Right about then, Nemea and Delev shows up, carrying big buckets of fish on shoulder yokes.  They set these down, and rolled their shoulders.  Delev started tossing fish to the plesiosaurs, and Nemea asked, "Saw something?"  From her tone she expected a negative answer and her surprise increased at the exchange she had with the Freelancers.

Tahu:  I saw something in the darkness.
Nemea:  "something"?
Tahu:  a shadow slip away, and enchanting!
Nemea:  what kind of enchantment?
Dryali: an enchanting enchantment!
Nemea:  what
Dryali:  apologies.  I did not prepare identify.  We should try again tonight, to learn more.
Nemea:  what was enchanted?
Dryali:  these two <points>.  If you ask, they will not remember.

Nemea touched a patch of hide on her shoulder, and went to the two indicated plesiosaurs.  She returned after a brief exchange, and looking around at the water.

Nemea: you are right!  I'm not sure what to do, now.  It's again out of place.
Dryali:  east, right?
Nemea:  yeah!
Dryali:  we should watch again tonight.  We'll be more prepared for what to expect.  Now, we do not know if the people casting any enchantment are from Halysraft or external, so keep this under wraps, and they'll do it again.
Nemea:  I'm not that good at deception… I will do my best.

The four Freelancers told her that was all she could do, and left for the day, leaving their bedrolls stashed nearby.  Since by this time they were ravenous, they went back to The Sea Horse's Fin, to see what Halysraft folk considered proper breakfast.

Chaostag, last prime post-Tumultuous

Breakfast turned out to be squid and duck egg omelets, with pancakes made from lily pad seeds, for those who thought the omelets were too heavy.  The pancakes had a surprisingly subtle taste.

After the four of them demolished their first round – Fine Branch was still asleep – they sat back and considered their day.  What to do?  Go visit the fishermen again?  Just as this conversation started, the Wind sagani Alag (whom Terrance and Tahu had noticed the night before) approached and asked if he could join their table for a moment.

Once seated, he introduced himself: Alag, of House Liona from Cliffshadow.  They did not recognize him, despite all four of them having young gryphons training at House Liona stables.  "I heard you were Freelancers," he said smoothly, and they glanced at each other.  From who?  "If you have spare time," he continued, "I am in search of osprey gryphon eggs.  I would pay 150gp each for them, or some lesser amount for reliable, accurate information where to find them."

The Freelancers' faces all became slightly less receptive, after all Arnari offered them missions for Liona's and Aldous' egg-greed all the time.  "Will you pay extra," Terrance asked pointedly, "if we are mindful of the osprey ecosystem so we do not create a trophic cascade?"  For all her antics, Terrance was a true Child of Āhua.

Dryali smiled sardonically.  "If we wanted to hunt gryphon eggs, we wouldn't have left Duquesne," he told Alag pleasantly.  

Alag was taken aback at this reception.  "Well," he started, then paused, marshalling his response.  "I'll leave it up to your discretion about your mindfulness, but will pay 200gp for accurate information as to locate."

Tuala said, "We have a busy next five days, and we are not sure how much longer beyond that we will stay."  He looked down at the claws on one hand, which he extended.

Alag nodded.  "I understand if you don't have the time.  Freelancers are already busy; but wanted to put this out there.  I'm available if you need, I'll leave you to your breakfast."  He shifted to another table.  The half-elves he'd been talking to the night before were nowhere in sight.

Tahu noted, "Sound like the kind of mission Dryali always wants:  gather info while doing other missions."  Dryali snorted.  While what he'd said was partially true, Dryali was thinking Arnari would have passed such a mission on to them if House Liona really wanted it or if she thought it was reliable.

At that point, Fine Branch appeared.  "What mission?" she asked, and they explained.  Fine Branch got breakfast and the others got more, to keep her company.  She mused, as she ate, "Do we know the path of Halysraft?"  They speculated on whether the drift was a specific pattern.

Tahu and Terrance were thinking fishermen.  But Dryali suggested, "We could go with the pearl divers, and dispel magic on a snapping turtle."  Tahu challenged that, "Why not on sharks?"

"They said there was more than one," Dryali explained, "and maybe the fishermen would be angry enough to throw us at the other shark."  Tahu conceded that was a good point.

They headed out of breakfast, still not sure of their day's activities.

The drizzle had faded to a damp mist, as the Freelancers meandered vaguely westward.  What to do, what to do.  Go after the shark?  The turtle?  Or, just fuck around and play tourist (which, Tuala pointed out, would preserve spell slots for any events with the plesiosaurs that evening).

They realized anything they actually wanted to do would likely impose a need for water breathing, and that such was available for 24 hours, for a fee, from the potion shop.  So, they retraced their steps, to a reasonably well-kept section of Halysraft, and there was the shop, a large glass bottle with bubbling liquid in the window.

They walked into the shop, and instead of a little bell ringing like some shops have, it made a sound like a dull roar, almost like the wind, except … wetter?

The walls in front had shelves with various potions and salves on one side, ingredients on the other..  On the right, towards the back, was a shrine to Moana.  It was draped in shells strung together, and coins piled up on a blue and green cloth that was gaudily arranged.

A counter was on the left, and behind it, in shades of blue and green, was a male human with short black wavy hair, clad in blue and green.  He was darkly tan and wore a shell necklace.  He looked up at the Freelancers, and said suavely, "What can I offer you, in terms of potions or potion supplies?  Or, have you come to offer to the Shrine of Moana?"  He gestured as he spoke.

Tahu asked, "What do people offer to the shrine?"  Belorit, for so it was, replied, "Things from the ocean which are valuable:  pearls, shells… someone brought a nice sealskin.  Moana appreciates such things!"

Fine Branch ostentatiously put a single gold coin.

Belorit's tone became less welcoming and more practical.  "What can I do, potions?  You seem to have an air of adventure!"  He was unsubtle in emphasizing "air".

Fine Branch said, "Need air, to adventure."  Terrance said, "Want to go swimming!"  Belorit raised a hand in caution.  "Take care!  The pearl divers say it is dangerous, now!"

Fine Branch replied, "Yeah, I want to avoid sleeping with the fishies."

Belorit offered, "For 50gp, I would be happy to cast water breathing on everyone!"  The Freelancers looked at each other in delight, and each produced 10gp.  After gathering these coins, Belorit made the Freelancers sit in a circle in the middle of the shop, and then got out some items.  He sprinkled water on all of them, and then sat in the same circle with them.  Intonine Moana, he took some reeds and broke them, then clacked a shell repeatedly.  In the end he sprinkled them with water again, and it was done.

They stood up.  "What do you know," Dryali asked, "Of, uh, the dangers the pearl divers have encountered?"  Belorit told him, "I've seen the scars, and occasionally healed their injuries!  It appears to be turtles."

He looked at them speculatively.  "What are your specialties?"  He smiled.  "Turtles?"  Fine Branch replied evasively, "Maybe?  Not sure.  ...probably not sharks."

Tahu said, "Maybe sharks," and Fine Branch added in a pitch voice, "No job too large or small, even walk dogs!"  Dryali sighed, and muttered, "But we're a bit tired of eggs."

Belorit had been picking up while they answered, and now went back behind the counter.  He picked up a mortar and pestle, grinding ingredients for a potion.

The Freelancers left, heading west towards the docks.  Noontime was not for another hour.

They arrived at the docks, and resolved any remaining indecision:  the masts to the south were gone; the fishermen were out already.  To the north, they saw the pearl divers' boats were still docked, and the Freelancers headed there.

Koetya stood up and waved them over.  "We were almost done waiting for you!  I'm still bleeding, so no pearl diving today, but we can still take you out."  She introduced them to another Rain sagani who had been waiting with her:  her cousin, Edmund.  They had two 35' boats and the two of them would sail them.

A discussion broke out, who would go with whom?  The Freelancers wanted to make sure there were healers in each boat.  In the end, Dryali, Terrance, and Tahu would go with Edmund; and the two nekomata went with Koetya.  Once decided, they sailed forth in short order, heading north and west.

The trip took 3 hours, and the boats had not been sailing for long before Halysraft sank below the curved horizon.  The sky remained overcast, but other than the swell and the horizon, it was eerily similar to flying on an airship.  From time to time they passed by strange islands of kelp and freshwater coral.  Edmund and Koetya explained how they came to be.   After about 2 hours, they spotted sails on the horizon.  "Probably the fishermen," Koetya opined, but "Not sure," Edmund said.

Despite the overcast, Dryali was very aware of the lack of shade.  He pulled out the big floppy hat he'd gotten on Waypoint Resource and jammed it on his head somewhat defiantly.

About half an hour later, they saw the kelp, and started to slow down; by the time 3 hours were up, they were carefully navigating within the kelp forest.   The boats stopped, and Koetya and Edmund dropped a round-ish anchor into the kelp.

The Freelancers peered into the water dubiously.  "The pearl oysters attach to the stems of the kelp," Edmund explained.  "Not sure where the kelp is attached, is too deep for comfortable diving," Koetya added.

Tahu asked, "If you dive too deep, is there a depth the water can't be breathed?"  Koetya explained, "The limit isn't breathing, it's the cold and pressure.  Also it's not lit."

At this, Terrance put on her ring of swimming, and jumped in.  Tahu sat on the edge of the boat, and fell backwards into the water, effectively doing a flip.  In the other boat, Tuala held his nose and stepped in, dropping vertically, feet first.

Fine Branch belly-flopped into the water.  Dryali hesitated, watching her, since she was the only other person there wearing a breastplate.  She seemed ok, so he made sure the oil of slipperiness was in his belt pouch, and dove in.

The Daystar was still high in the sky, so the kelp forest was well-lit as the Freelancers looked around.  Terrance and Tuala were staring at the kelp, fascinated by it.  Terrance thought it looked a bit like upside-down trees.  Dryali and Tahu viewed it as an ecosystem, with all the fishes, and a plesiosaur in the distance.

Fine Branch, however, was entirely out of her element.  She was 100% sure a shark was lurking in the kelp to her left, and she spun quickly in the water, trying to see it.  "Holy fuck!  Shark!" she cried, tails poofing out and looking ridiculous underwater.

She sent a guiding bolt at the shark, which was nothing of the sort, just Fine Branch being confused.  A kelp tree frond blew apart in the water, and she exclaimed, "Kelp ho!  Is it me you're looking for?"

The others stared at her a moment.

Tahu suggested, "Should we go look for pearls?"  Dryali exclaimed, "Let's see if that triggers the turtle!"  Tahu nodded.  "Yeah."

Dryali thought more.  "How about I detect magic," he suggested, "And do the 10 minute ritual.  During that time we'll see if the snapping turtles trigger [without our touching the pearls]."  He moved between the two boats and started doing that.

The others kept swimming around, looking for anything unusual and getting used to the novel environment.  Of course they probably wouldn't realize something was unusual unless it bit them on the ass, they were so unused to it.  Fine Branch did notice a plesiosaur swimming in the distance, and did a double-take until she realized that wasn't what she'd attacked with guiding bolt earlier.

After about 4 minutes, Tahu saw some shadows in the water to the west.  They did not look the same as what he'd seen the night before near the plesiosaurs, but he was intrigued.

"Oh, look!" he called out.  "I see shadows!"  He dashed towards the shadows, not that he could swim fast enough to out run Terrance to leisurely followed behind him, pacing him.

As they got closer to where Tahu had seen the shadows, they saw a large greenish flipper sticking out from behind the kelp, that looked an awful lot like the appendage of a turtle.

* * session break * *

Dryali took one look at the two rogues swimming towards a large turtle, out of his detect magic range, and stopped his ritual cast.  Instead he created a protector eldritch cannon, taking care to give it fins so it would be mobile in the water.  The cannon pulsed, bolstering Dryali and the two nekomata swimming near him.

• A giant snapping turtle emerged from the kelp and chomped on Terrance.  She dodged uncannily but still acquired a wound on her arm similar to the one Koetya was sporting the day before on her leg.
• Tuala cast magic missile at the turtle, damaging it with force.
• Tahu drew his magical shortsword and attacked the turtle near its neck, but was thwarted by the turtle's carapace.  He drew his magical daggar and struck the other side, causing the turtle to bleed profusely.
• Terrance was angry, but remembered why they were there, and cast her innate detect magic.  A strong feeling of enchantment magic emanated off the turtle.  "I forgive you, turtle!" she declared, then swam into the large clump of nearby kelp and hid.
• Fine Branch heard Terrance, and looked at Dryali.  "Should we not kill it?"  She tried to dispel magic on the turtle, but failed.  She cast spiritual weapon in the form of 6 interlocking resin rings, which smacked the turtle's beak with force.

Blood was filling the water around the turtle, some from Terrance but more from the daggar strike Tahu had dealt it.  Dryali looked around for more hostile creatures, and saw 2 sharks!  "Terrance, do you see that?" he called, not loudly, for the water would carry it.  "Yes, it is enchanted too," she replied.

Dryali scowled, something must be doing these enchantments.  He cast see invisibility on himself and looked around again.  Nothing showed.  He moved the protector cannon up to where Fine Branch was, towards the rogues and the turtle.

• The giant snapping turtle attacked the last thing to hurt it, namely, the spiritual weapon, to no avail.
• Tuala cast web between himself and the closest shark, ensnaring it.

• Tahu stabbed the turtle with his magical shortsword, and wounded it more grievously; he followed up with the daggar.  The water around them was beginning to get bloody.
• Terrance was just living her best kelp tree life!  But, she drew her magical rapier and tried to skewer the giant turtle up the tail.  The rapier just skidded off its shell.  She hid in the kelp again after that.
• The shark in the web could not get out.  The other shark, which was closer to the turtle and the bloody water, swam over and started biting at the web to free it.  Everyone scowled at this un-shark-like behaviour.  Once it succeeded freeing the other shark, it swam over towards Tahu, staring at him with its cold, black, dead eyes.
• Fine Branch moved so that all the creatures were in range, and brought down the bane of The Cat on them all.  Her spiritual weapon smacked the turtle on the beak with force again.

Dryali had the protector cannon swim closer to the melee, and shot the snapping turtle with a firebolt, killing it.

• Tuala, really at a loss for what to do underwater, swam closer to the sharks, and pulled out a sling.  He sent a rock from the sling in some random direction.
• Tahu swung his arms leftward gracefully to rotate in place away from the dead turtle... to discover a shark in his face.  Surprised, he stabbed it in the nose with his magical shortsword.  Then he thought better of staying right where the shark's mouth was, and moved to its side and stabbed it with his daggar.  Then he saw the freed other shark and swam further away from it.
• Terrance tried to persuade the kelp into helping them by grasping the sharks.  She thought she might have succeeded.  That didn't stop her from trying to attack the shark from her kelp hiding place.  Her scimitar swing went wide.
• The shark that had been in the web totally ignored the pool of blood around the dead turtle and instead swam straight at Tuala, biting and snapping.  It missed.
• The other shark bit Tahu.  He dodged uncannily but still got cut from all the pointy teeth.
• Fine Branch moved the spiritual weapon to that shark, the interlocking rings bonking it on the nose with force.  Everyone's ears rang as she cast toll the dead to inflict necrosis on it.

Dryali could not believe this entire situation was happening.  The Dark elf cast about again, looking for a hidden magic user manipulating these beasts.  Nothing.  The protector cannon swam closer to Tahu and Terrance, bolstering them, but he was worried it would get targeted.  Then he hit the shark on Tahu with a firebolt.

• Tuala drew his daggar and struck the shark in front of him in the nose as hard as he could, with his noodly arms.  He actually drew blood, too.
• Tahu swung his magical shortsword at the shark in front of him, but it went wide.  He followed up with his magical daggar, right in the gills.

The shark transformed, and in front of them all was a female Sea elf, skin not dissimilar to the colour of the kelp, bleeding from the gills!  She did not look most pleased, not at all, and she hefted what looked like a mace made out of freshwater coral.  Tahu stepped forward to stay in her melee range, but Terrance emerged from the kelp and struck her with her magic scimitar, knocking her out.  Terrance manacled her.  She noted the detect magic lit up with a different magic on the Sea elf.

• Unconscious Sea elf or not, a shark was in Tuala's face, and bit him badly.  Blood poured out of the bite, clouding the water around him.
• Fine Branch moved the spiritual weapon towards the shark, and again everyone's ears rang as toll the dead inflicted necrosis, visible spreading through the shark's skin.

Dryali's protector cannon swam towards Tuala, bolstering him.  Then Dryali critfailed as he shot a firebolt at the shark, and instead hit Tuala.  He started to swim towards Tuala.

• Tuala made that cat sound, when a feline is incredibly unhappy, and dodged.
• Tahu, alarmed at the cat sound, swam up to Tuala; he was so slow he had to dash to get there.  "Why are you still next to it?" he asked, almost idly slashing the shark badly with his magical shortsword.
• Terrance casually swam to the shark and attacked with her magical rapier.  However she missed, and moved to hide in the nearby kelp again, avoiding the bite from the shark.
• Frustrated about Terrance, the shark bit Tuala again, and Tuala made an even louder cat sound.
• Fine Branch cast toll the dead on the shark again, and it died.

Everyone headed back up to the boats – Terrance towing the unconscious Sea elf – except Dryali, who was unconvinced the elf was the cause of all these attacks.  He cast about, looking for others.

While Dryali was faffing about under the waves, the others were explaining what happened to Koetya and Edmund and why they had a severely wounded, unconscious Sea elf.  Fine Branch cast cure wounds to heal Tuala somewhat.  It was still overcast, and a breeze had picked up.

Dryali was clambering out of the water just as Tahu asked, "Should we do some pearl diving?"  Terrance and Tuala, both of whom were bleeding still, were clearly not enthused by this concept.

Koetya:  only if you keep watch.
Fine Branch:  be a shame to waste the trip
Dryali:  how long?
Koetya:  an hour or two?
Fine Branch:  I can go!
Dryali:  so, I have oil of slipperiness.  The reason I acquired it was if you take a few minutes to apply it properly, you can go swimming for hours.
Terrance:  you can also borrow my ring of swimming; I want to nap.
Tuala:  I also want to nap.
Tahu:  I want to learn the pearl diving!
Dryali:  do you want the oil of slipperiness?
Tahu <shrugs>:  I can just dash about
Koetya <laughs>: we don't swim that fast harvesting pearls!  Only when trying to get away!<pause as she contemplates the blooded water>
Koetya:  we should get these carcasses on the boat before anyone naps.
Edmund:  some of these, especially the turtle shell, can be used to make magic items!  It will sell well.

The Rain sagani dove in the water and towed the carcasses back to the boats.  Once there, they directed the Freelancers where to stand and/or help haul the carcasses out of the water without capsizing either boat.  Somehow, the shark looked even scarier laying in the boat.

With Terrance and Tuala napping, and Fine Branch and Tahu pearl diving, Dryali was left to watch.  He pulled out his big floppy hat again and put it on as the others swam away.  Then he contemplated the Sea elf in alarm.  Did she have to be underwater to breathe?  No, he saw her chest rise and fall.

Underwater, Koetya and Edmund guided Fine Branch and Tahu to where they harvested pearls.  They explained, "Take some of the larger oysters.  We used to open them up here, but it took too long and is too dangerous.  Now we just take them back, and harvest the meat and pearls, and make use of the shells, too."

As the pearl divers went through the kelp methodically, Fine Branch found 3 big oysters, and was super pleased with herself.  Tahu wasn't sure, still, the difference between an oyster and a mussel.  He also got distracted by seeing an urchin eating the kelp!  He looked up to call out to the Rain sagani, and saw them dart between the kelp.  Then it hit him, the shark shape was exactly the shadow he'd seen swim away from the plesiosaurs!

Dryali's watch was boring.  Tuala and Terrance and this Sea elf were asleep.  Who was she?  He started checking her gear methodically.  She had a pretty headband, of shells strung together with twine.  Dryali realized that was her casting focus, and grimly removed it.  She had an armband that was obviously magical; he removed that too and set it aside.  He checked her belt pouch:  a couple pearls, a high-quality piece of coral.  He picked up her mace and studied it:  it would probably hit like a morning star, with all that sharp coral.

Dryali looked around again; no sign of anything hostile.  He sat back down, adjusting the floppy hat, and picked up the armband.  What is this?  It too was very pretty, shells and coral bound with intricate knotwork.

After a while, Terrance and Tuala stirred; the nap had done them some good, they got up and stretched.  Tuala took great interest in the shark carcass, pulling out a knotted string, measuring it and taking notes.  Terrance just watched him and the water.  The Sea elf also stirred a bit, but Dryali bonked her with the pommel of his daggar and she passed back out.

By the time the others returned, Dryali deduced the armband was an armband of fish command, allowing the wearer to cast dominate beast multiple times a day on anything with a swimming speed.  But, only on one beast at a time.  He told the others, as they were preparing to get under way.

"There's some group of Sea elves doing this!" Fine Branch declared.  Dryali was unconvinced.  "We have one.  You are extrapolating."

Tahu was tired and wanted a nap, so that left Dryali, Terrance, and Edmund in one boat with the unconscious Sea elf and sleeping Wind sagani.  Fine Branch and Tuala were in the boat with Koetya and a large dead snapping turtle and shark.

Dryali, wondering about how the Marshal would react to this turn of events, tried to find out more about him from Edmund.  "He's mostly fair, but bribable," Edmund told Dryali and Terrance.  "He seems to care more about Halysraft than any one person, and definitely keeps things orderly."  After a moment's thought, Edmund added, "He's super pissed that trade with Buhayra is down."

Fine Branch had a different conversation with Koetya, who showed her how to open the oysters and extract the pearls.  "Oh, these are very nice," Koetya exclaimed, as they got two pearls worth 100gp from them.  Fine Branch opened the third one, and their eyes widened.  The pearl within was an amazing black.  It must have been worth 500gp.

Terrance and Dryali took turns keeping the Sea elf knocked out, until they were back at Halysraft, with the Daystar westering.  The Freelancers helped haul the carcasses out of the boat, then contemplated the Sea elf.

Fine Branch had also been thinking about how the Marshal would react.  "We do not want to turn this into the Marshal," she said, "Without questioning her first.  The problem is, she can probably shape change into any number of things and drop into the water and swim away."

"I have a storage shed you can borrow," Koetya offered.  "It's where we keep the oyster shells.  It's less secure than where we keep the pearls, but…" she too obviously did not trust the Sea elf.  She led them to the shed and unlocked it, then she and Edmund selected some oyster shells.  "We're going to skin that shark, we'll leave you to it."

The Freelancers carried the Sea elf into the shed, but Tahu wanted to watch the shark get skinned.  It occurred to him that maybe the shark is the same one that had attacked the fishermen, and he wanted to check for bits of boat in the shark's stomach.

Koetya and Edmund were using the sharp oyster shells to skin the shark.  "We don't want to ruin our knives," they explained to Tahu, who completely agreed with this sentiment.  Unfortunately, sharks have very efficient digestion, and there was no clue whether it was the creature that had attacked the fisherman the prior day.  Tuala, on the other hand, had lots of clue, having measured the dead shark and its jaws and bite.  He assured Tahu it was a match.

* * session break * *

In the shed, the other Freelancers regarded the unconscious Sea elf, tied up on the floor. Benches and cold chests lined the walls, some with oyster meat but not a lot.  Some oyster shells and shucking knives were in the corner.

Fine Branch <growling>: prestidigitate the Sea elf to be a fish, and feed her to the plesiosaurs.
Dryali:  don't think so, because of what Tahu saw
Tuala:  oh, that's right!  And, not all of them were enchanted.

They fell into discussing what they were going to do to talk to the Sea elf.  They'd about figured out that Fine Branch could set up zone of truth to cover the shed, when Tahu rejoined them.  Tahu noted that before any questioning of the Sea elf began, the group should be clear on what they wish to learn from her.  Everyone contributed what they wanted to learn to the list.

• Who are you?
• Acting alone/who else/how many
• Why 
• How long
• What is goal
• What would induce you to stop
• Who benefits

Dryali, mindful of how he'd react if he was on the floor in this shed tied up, said, "Pull a chest in the center for her, so she can sit properly."  The others were scornful that this would make a difference, but they did so, and put her on top of it.  What did they know, they aren't elves.  Fine Branch cast zone of truth, then Dryali reached forth and touched the Sea elf, using the earring of Āhua to heal her awake.  He stepped back somewhat respectfully.

Blinking, the Sea elf came to, then raised herself up and looked around at the five Freelancers.  She clearly recognized them, and became visibly unhappy.  She shook her head slightly, defiant.

Fine Branch frowned, and cast zone of truth again.  The Sea elf muttered to herself in Elvish, "Fucking mouth breathers."  She raised her voice, and spoke in Primordial, which Fine Branch only partially understood, and Terrance not at all.

Sea elf:  what do you air breathers want with me?
Tahu:  we can breathe water, for another 12 hours.
Fine Branch <in Trade>:  why did Tahu just propose marriage?
Tahu <in Trade>:  I'm just teasing her.
Tahu:  we're not here to hurt you.  We heard of some weird happenings in Halysraft, and we're here to figure out what's going on.
Tuala:  you attacked us with a turtle, and another shark, so <shrugged>
Sea elf:  you and your horrible friends need to get off the thalassa.  You have your own skyliths and you're messing up the ecosystem, besides
Dryali:  I don't think so.

Dryali translated this into Trade.  Terrance scowled and said, "Using an armband of fish command and changing how sea creatures behave sounds like it’s a great way to mess with the ecosystem."  Dryali translated that back into Primordial for the Sea elf.

Dryali <slowly>: we were asked by someone to harvest osprey gryphon eggs, and <gestured at Terrance> challenged them about causing trophic collapse.
Sea elf:  should kick them off the thalassa too!  And should also leave.
Fine Branch <carefully, persuasively>:  how many of there are you?
Sea elf:  I and druid friends are doing their best to cut Halysraft off!
Fine Branch <still carefully>:  and how are many there?
Sea elf:  two.
Fine Branch <in Trade>:  so, 2 more druids we have to find.
Fine Branch:  where are they?
Sea elf:  of course not in Halysraft!  Seralynn and Westthuis are deep in the kelp forests.
Tahu:  what is your name?
Sea elf:  Jajuna.
Tuala:  are there any collaborators on Halysraft?
Jajuna:  of course no collaborators on horrible air breather place.
Dryali:  how about Buhayra? 
Jajuna:  those fools don't know what's good for them, they need to be protected from themselves!
<Tahu translated for Terrance and Fine Branch>
Dryali:  what triggered this?  <gestured>
Jajuna:  I and Seralynn and Westthuis have been talking about how terrible the mouth breathers were, and we finally were given the tools to do something about it!
Tuala:  who gave you those tools?
Jajuna:  a very helpful druid came to us with gifts.  We were given these armbands by this druid.
Tuala:  he have a name?
Jajuna:  no, but he was a Rain sagani associated with the amazing trading ship, Osprey.
<Tahu, Dryali, and Tuala visibly reacted, but said nothing as Jajuna kept going>
Jajuna:  Rain sagani are more trustworthy.  His captain saw the damage from the mouth breathers and
Fine Branch:  the ship dick!!
<Tahu translated for Terrance and Fine Branch>
Dryali <in Elvish>:  Niastacia?!
Jajuna <in Elvish>:  yes!  She's another elf.
Dryali <in Elvish>:  you have been betrayed.
Jajuna <in Elvish>:  yes, you are an elf, let me go!
Tuala:  what is your next move?
Jajuna:  we're going to ramp up; you said Halysraft has been having troubles.  <face fell>  but there's only 3 of us
Fine Branch <in Trade>:  there's about to be none of you
Dryali:  have you heard of the Skyguard?
Jajuna:  are they horrible air breathers?  ...no
Tahu:  have you been interfering with trade between Buhayra and Halysraft?
Jajuna:  yes
Tahu:  what sort of things you been doing?
Jajuna:  send animals to attack it
Fine Branch:  how do you meditate – <in Trade> how does she think they will react, in Buhayra, to her activities?
<Tahu translated for Jajuna>
Jajuna:  they don't know any better.  Once Halysraft is gone it will be so much better.

Dryali said to his fellow Freelancers, "We should find out from the Marshal, what Halysraft has been doing, to interfere with the Osprey."  The others nodded; Tahu said, "Good idea," while Tuala just went hmmmm.

Tahu said, "Ask, or find out on our own?"  Dryali said, "Ask.  his reaction would be educational."

They contemplated Jajuna in the ensuing silence.  Dryali broke it, again speaking in Primordial.

Dryali:  I think you've been manipulated into an air breather war.  The Osprey has many enemies.
Jajuna:  maybe you mouth breathers should take your war somewhere away from the thalassa.
Tahu:  do other airships land here?
Jajuna:  the Osprey, on the far side, came once, to help us.
Dryali:  no, they did not!
Fine Branch:  doubt
Jajuna:  as far as I know, they did.
Dryali:  no other airships, as far as you know?
Jajuna:  as far as I know.
<paused>
Fine Branch <in Trade>:  was she the only one present in the kelp?
<Tahu translated for Jajuna>
Jajuna:  yes
Tahu:  where were the others?
Jajuna:  messing with the fishermen
Fine Branch <in Trade>:  do they all have specific animals?
<Tahu translated for Jajuna>
Jajuna:  I'm mostly in the kelp, and whatever animal is closest.
Fine Branch:  so work together do the other two do?
Jajuna <slowly>:  no… just divide up the tasks.
Fine Branch <in Trade>: so they won't notice for a while.
Tahu:  how often did you check in?
Jajuna:  maybe not for a day

Tahu turned to the others.  "I feel less bad about turning her over to the Marshal now," he stated.  Fine Branch nodded dejectedly.  "Yeah," she agreed.

Dryali asked, "Buhayra, then?"  Fine Branch replied, "We don't have the means to go there without help."

Dryali suggested, "We could use her as bait to draw the other two out."  Tahu started to object, "They could –" and Tuala cut him off, "They could decide she was martyr to their cause."

Tahu suggested, "We could be extra evil, and convince them she turned on us, and is working with the mouth breathers."  He was not expecting the others to embrace the idea, but they did.

Dryali started outlying a plan to get Koetya to fetch the Marshal, but Fine Branch cut him off, "We could swim to their meeting place, and have something attack her friends, using the armband."

Dryali exclaimed, "I was speaking!" and Fine Branch was so surprised she shut up.  "We should go get the Marshal, and bring him here; while we're at it, find out about the Osprey.  He takes care of the prisoner, then do Fine Branch's plan."

They decided Fine Branch and Terrance would go to the Marshal.  After all, it's not like they could talk to Jajuna.

The walk back to the central barge with the Marshal's office took about ten minutes, and they were shown in to see Chelbesa as he was wrapping up for the day.  He looked up at them, eyes narrowed, and found their faces unreadable.

Chelbesa:  eh?  What is going on?  Found anything?
Fine Branch:  we have news from the Osprey, if you'd like to hear it.
Chelbesa <startled>:  what?  Osprey?!  Why you have news – ? Why you?  Why for me?
Fine Branch:  we've dealt with them in the past.
Chelbesa:  I'm impressed you're alive.
Fine Branch:  you should be, that they are… anyhow.  They seem behind this.
Chelbesa:  fuck!!! The Osprey!

Chelbesa opened a drawer in his desk and got out a flask, downing a shot.  From the smell, it was some sort of home-brewed alcohol.  He sat back and said, thoughtfully, "They've attacked some of our airships before.  Activity is up;  I – can't believe –" his voice trailed off and he sat back, running his hand through his hair.

Fine Branch's eyes narrowed as she considered Chelbesa's reaction.  But she honestly could not tell if his was the reaction of a man worried about being found out, or of a man scared of the pirate airship Osprey.

Fine Branch:  tell us what you know, and we'll try to take care of this.
Chelbesa:  you're braver than I.  <tells about more activity placeholder>  their captain is a Cloud elf, Starbreeze.  <swigged flask>  How have you heard of them?
Fine Branch:  we've encountered them before.
Chelbesa:  how terrifying!  ...wait.  Are they here?
Fine Branch:  their elves are here!
Chelbesa:  Captain Niastacia is here?  <put flask down to check weapons>  what evidence do you have?
Fine Branch:  ever have more trouble with Sea elves, reluctant to trade more than seems reasonable?
Chelbesa:  no!  We have a great relationship with them!  Trade with Buhayra is brisk and mutually profitable.
Fine Branch:  we've captured one of them who has been messing with Halysraft.
Chelbesa:  wait.  Is that why trade slowed down?
Fine Branch:  yes, these Sea elves have been interfering.
Chelbesa <made notes>:  how many?  Is it just this one?
Fine Branch:  more
Terrance:  more than just this one.
Fine Branch:  messing with resource collection, navigation
Terrance:  attacking residents … ourselves included
Chelbesa:  huh.  Do you have a plan?
Fine Branch:  we have one, and a plan for the others, but our plan is not going to make the problem go away, because they are supplied and radicalized by
Terrance:  the Osprey.
<silence>
Chelbesa:  if you need them held, we have facilities
Fine Branch:  are you prepared to deal with shapeshifters?
Chelbesa:  maybe?  Is anyone prepared?
Terrance <wearily>:  do you have the people.
Chelbesa:  we have secured the holding cell; that slows them down.
<another silence>
Chelbesa:  what I don't have, is the money to pay you, to take care of the Osprey.
Fine Branch <expansively>:  why don't you pledge what you can, and we'll talk to the other skyliths…
Chelbesa:  that's not a terrible idea.  I'll talk to Arnari or Damakaios…  ...maybe Tanglar

At this, Chelbesa stood up, wrenched open the door, to find Veena and Nadarsk unashamedly listening outside.  "Go with these to retrieve a Sea elf prisoner, while I prep a holding cell," he ordered, and they nodded.  "Watch out, the elf is a shapeshifter."

Ten minutes later, Jajuna had a 7 person escort back to the holding cells on the central barge, where she was delivered without incident, muttering in Elvish about "mouth breathers" the entire way.  Before they'd left the dock, though, the Freelancers made sure to get all the shark teeth from Koetya and Edmund.

By the time Jajuna had been settled in, it was dinner time; and the Freelancers headed back to The Sea Horse's Fin to eat.  They were hungry and weary and less than enthused about watching the plesiosaurs a second night in a row, especially since they were pretty sure they'd either find another druid, or nothing.

Tuala was talking about acquiring a crossbow, and Dryali noted that he could infuse it, if they did not think wand of secrets was of any use while on Halysraft.  He then mentioned spell-refueling ring, and they discussed which of Dryali's infusions would best benefit them on the morrow.  They decided on a light crossbow for Tuala, and the nekomata picked one up on the way there.

Part of their weariness was the Halysraft day was longer than they were accustomed to; but as they ate, they realized more of it was from… the Daystar.  Despite the overcast, sailing for 6-8 hours with no shelter from the light of the Daystar had consequences, and everyone was turning an alarming shade of pink.  Even Tuala and Fine Branch had pink noses, and the inside of their ears.

Dryali and Fine Branch were better off than the others; Dryali attributed his lighter burn to the embarrassing floppy hat.  Perhaps also, when he and Fine Branch looked at the others, they recalled Siress from Waypoint Resource:  The Daystar sees you, and will avenge me.  Perhaps this burn was what she meant.

All of the Freelancers were so weary they went straight to their rooms after dinner, even though Fine Branch had started dinner with bold plans of descending on the druids' meeting place and capturing the others.  None had bothered listening to the surrounding conversations, nor did any of them send to Nemea and Delev that they were not taking watch.

Chaostag slid into Vrontag while they rested.

The Freelancers arose the next morning, but only Dryali and Fine Branch were refreshed.  Tahu, Tuala, and Terrance remained pink, and were exhausted.  Dryali's skin that had been pink, was darkening considerably; he looked like a reverse raccoon.

Before they went down to break fast, Dryali infused Tuala's light crossbow with repeating shot.

While breakfasting, while not sure what to do with their day, the Freelancers decided a followup visit to Belorit was in order.  Not only would having water breathing expand their list of options, they were curious as to the consequences of bringing gifts of the sea to the Shrine of Moana.

They left The Sea Horse's Fin to find the weather clear, the Daystar shining down on them from above.  Dryali was again unhappy about the brightness, but not nearly as unhappy as Terrance, Tuala, and Tahu.  Distant clouds could mean it would be overcast and rain later, though.  Belorit's potion shop wasn't that far a walk, however, and they were soon inside again.

Belorit greeted them as they entered the shop, then asked, "How was your hunting?"  He did not say anything about the burns.  Fine Branch answered cheerfully, "Caught ourselves a shark!"  Belorit, surprised, exclaimed, "O wow!"  Tahu added, "And a turtle, and pearls!"

Belorit asked, "Have you come to make an offering?"  In response, Fine Branch brought out one of the white pearls she'd harvested, worth 100gp, and put it on the altar.  Nothing really happened, beyond an amazing increase in Belorit's happiness.

After that they paid another 10gp each for water breathing.  Again Belorit made them sit in a circle, and invoked Moana.  This time he ground two oyster shells together, and sprinkled the dust on the seated Freelancers.  Oyster dust stuck to the gel in Dryali's hair, making it glitter.

Once he was done, they arose to leave, but Dryali produced three of the shark teeth he'd acquired the prior day, and arranged them on the Shrine to Moana.  Silently, he hoped this was a fitting offering to a capricious Primordial God.  Belorit had a different reaction to the teeth, and intoned: "Moana's blessing upon you; may the god not look too closely upon you."

A surprising blessing, but Belorit must know whereof he spake.  The Freelancers took their leave, and fell to sorting out the rest of their day.

The options for what to do, as they were discussing them, were:

• Try to go out with Arbetman and the fishermen
• Wait for evening, and watch the plesiosaurs
• Check for agents of the Osprey in the seedy part of town to the south

Fine Branch felt that the only action that had hope of catching another druid before they became aware of Jajuna's capture was the fishermen.  The others agreed, so they headed towards the docks.

The Freelancers arrived to see the fishermen had not yet set sail, with Arbetman in the center of the preparations, angry and yelling at others.  As they approached him, Dryali saw a couple unused wooden blocks.  He picked them up and hefted them experimentally, as Fine Branch hailed Arbetman.

Fine Branch:  hey Arbetman! Give us a ride!
Arbetman: so, you know what's going on?  Get on the boat, you gonna help me now!  Get on the boat!
Fine Branch:  we know what's going on.
Arbetman:  get on the boat and help me!  <reconsidering>  not with the fishing.  Don't trust you to do that right.
Dryali:  we might need a net
Arbetman:  don't work on sharks!  Only fish!
Fine Branch:  what if we catch a shark?
Tahu:  aren't sharks fish?
Arbetman:  nets aren't for sharks!  You catch the sharks!
Tuala:  sharks are fish.
Fine Branch <sternly>:  if we catch a shark, we're keeping the whole thing!

And at that, Fine Branch boarded Arbetman's boat, and sat on the pile of nets loaded on deck.  Arbetman looked at her, and swore about the capriciousness of cats.

Dryali checked which boat would be on the other end of Arbetman's net, and found out it would be Isgrigg's; he boarded that one.  When asked, he explained that each boat on the ends of the net should have a caster with heals on it, but in reality he did not want to deal with the nekomata and the angry fisherman snarking for hours in the bright daylight.

The other Freelancers looked at each other.  Terrance got on Arbetman's boat with Fine Branch; Tuala and Tahu got on Isgrigg's boat with Dryali.  Tuala pulled his cloak over his head, to shade his burned ears from the Daystar.

A short time later, the four fishing vessels were underway.  Isgrigg explained it would be three hours' sailing til they got to the fishery they wanted.  Tahu and Dryali consulted, and Dryali gave Tahu the armband of fish command.  Tahu attuned to the armband while Tuala attuned to the light crossbow.  Meanwhile, Fine Branch prepared to cast locate object, to look for a druidic focus.  The plan was simple: find the druid; when they changed to a shark, use the armband to capture them.

The fishing fleet arrived, and started to put out their nets.  All was ready.  Fine Branch cast locate object, and waited.  Minutes passed:  1, 2, 4, 5.  Nothing.  Then finally, Fine Branch detected it.  The object curved in, then out, north of the fishermen.  Suddenly, it vanished.

"Everyone not-us out of the water!" she yelled, voice carrying clearly to all the boats.  "Arbetman!  Nets up!"  The startled Arbetman barely had time to acknowledge Fine Branch's imperative, before she cast disguise self to transform into Jajuna.

* * session break * *

So, my friends, before I write what happens next, let's rewind a little to improve our contextual understanding of the scenario.

The boats in Arbetman's little fishing fleet are roughly 35-40 feet long, and crewed by a captain, who helms the boat, another person manning the sails, and two people to work the nets.  The midship railing isn't that high off of the water, to facilitate running and hauling the nets.

On Arbetman's boat, where Fine Branch and Terrance were, he was steering; and Isgrigg was steering his boat, on which were Dryali, Tahu, and unhappy Tuala who had his cloak pulled over his head from the Daystar.  Both Arbetman and Isgrigg had turned their boats southward, and had their nets already in the water, crossing the 60' distance between them, when Fine Branch had shouted.  So the disappearing druidic focus Fine Branch had detected was approaching from astern.  Isgrigg's boat was east, and therefore to port, of Arbetman's.

While en route to the fishing grounds, Dryali had thought about what cantrip from his all-purpose tool would be the most useful, and decided shape water would most likely be, so he learned it for the duration.

Mindful of the crew, as soon as Fine Branch shouted, Dryali created a protector eldritch cannon, and put it in the center of the boat.  Then, along with Tahu and Isgrigg, he looked astern to see a very large, toothy, black & white creature swimming towards them.  Isgrigg saw it too and swore.  "A killer whale!  We never seen that before!"  Dryali's eyes narrowed; there was a shark off to the right.

Dryali nudged Tuala to come out from under the cloak.  "See that shark?  I bet it's another druid, controlling that thing."  He pulled out his arcane firearm, ready to firebolt it if the shark breached the water surface.  Tuala emerged out from under his cloak.  Upon seeing the shark pointed out, Tahu loaded his light crossbow.

Over on Arbetman's boat, Terrance was too distracted by the lack of trees to see anything, but Fine Branch also saw the killer whale and the shark, and Arbetman was swearing as much as Isgrigg.  Fine Branch concluded the killer whale was the bigger threat.

The shark breached.  Dryali sank a firebolt into it, burning it badly; Tahu's crossbow bolt also pierced it.  It swam towards the starboard side of Isgrigg's boat, and attacked the nets.

• Fine Branch cast spiritual weapon in the form of a large, flat rubber ring.  It manifested vertically in front of the shark, and bonked it on the nose with force.  She followed up by casting toll the dead, and necrosis spread across the shark.  The bell sounded plaintive, echoing across the water.
  • The shark faded out and a male Sea elf was in its place.
  • Arbetman's swears changed, "the FUCK!  Fish people!  Stealing OUR fish!"
• Dryali looked at Tahu.  "Tahu, you gonna deal with killer whale?"  Tahu replied, "Sure!"  Dryali said, "Okay, watch this!" and cast levitate on the Sea elf to pull him out of the water.  The Sea elf successfully wiggled out of it though.
• Tahu shook his head.  "This is how it's done," he told Dryali, and levitated the Sea elf into the air.  The Sea elf man had a headband of shells, like Jajuna, as well as the armband and coral mace.
  • Dryali called out jovially in Elvish, "Westthuis!  So good to meet you!"  The Sea elf turned to look, confused someone knew his name.
• Tuala shot a firebolt at Westthuis and critfailed, barely missing Arbetman's sails.  Tuala's tails, and fingers, and toes, started sparking; the deck beneath his rear paws smoked.  Alarmed and worried he'd set the boat on fire, Tuala grabbed his nose and jumped off the port side of the boat, away from Westthuis and the killer whale.
• Terrance called across, "Do we want to capture it?"  Dryali called back, "Yes, but I have the earring [of Āhua]!"  Terrance pulled out her short bow and sank an arrow into the levitated Sea elf, then hid behind the railing.
• The killer whale swam to the port side of Arbetman's boat, right where Terrance had dropped behind the railing, and rammed it.  Terrance, Arbetman, and the crew manning the sails kept their feet.  Fine Branch and the two manning the nets were knocked prone, and were hurt in the process.
• Swimming up from below, unseen by all, a kronosaurus appeared on the port side of Isgrigg's boat, and chomped on Tuala, ouch!  It twisted, and thwacked the boat with its tail, knocking everyone over but the crew handling the nets.  The protector cannon's bolster mitigated injuries.  Tuala yeowled, and Arbetman started screeching in surprise.

Westthuis remained suspended in the air, away from the water, or any others surface he could grab onto.  He cast produce flame and threw it at Tahu, but missed and the flame landed in the water near Tuala.

• Fine Branch channelled The Cat to create a doppelgänger of herself behind the killer whale.  She sent the spiritual weapon over to Westthuis but failed to hit the dangling Sea elf.  She stayed prone on the deck, not wanting to be knocked over again.
• Dryali stood up, and had the protector cannon bolster everyone again.  He told Tahu, "If you shoot that druid, I can tug him over here with mage hand and that's one less thing to worry about."  Tahu nodded, and Dryali readied himself to do it.
• Then Tahu stood up and shot Westthuis, who would have dropped if he wasn't levitated.  Dryali used the mage hand to bring the druid to the boat and Tahu lowered him to the deck.
• Unhappy Tuala used sorcery points to quicken an invisibility spell on himself, then disengaged from the kronosaurus and climbed back on Isgrigg's boat.  He moved towards the stern, the wet deck steaming and smouldering under his invisible paws.
• Terrance stood up, crit the killer whale with an eye shot, then dropped back behind the railing to hide.
• The killer whale swam a bit away then rammed Arbetman's boat midships.  Everyone on their feet kept their feet, but Arbetman cried, "It's only ever been sharks before, what the heck?!"  Dryali became grim, mentally adding so you said.
• The kronosaurus attacked Isgrigg's boat, but did not damage it.  Isgrigg exclaimed, "What is this?!"

Fine Branch started moving the spiritual weapon towards the kronosaurus, and cast a twice-uplevel'd guiding bolt, just to miss.  The spiritual weapon was still near the tail end of the killer whale, though (it was that long) and smacked the creature with force.

• Dryali picked up one of the wooden blocks he'd brought from the dock, moved to the bow of the boat, then cast catapult to have the block bludgeon the killer whale.  He was concerned it was still attacking after the controlling druid was knocked out.  The protector cannon bolstered Tuala as Dryali moved back to midships.
• Tahu decided to try the armband of fish command, and cast dominate beast on the kronosaurus.  He didn't realize it was mental, and yelled "Attack the orca!" out loud at it, in Trade.
• Tuala reappeared as he cast magic missile on the killer whale.
• Terrance rose up from hiding behind the rail, and shot the killer whale with her short bow.  As her arrow pierced it, the creature transformed into another Sea elf!  Female, this time, but with the same armband.  Terrance hid again anyhow.
• Arbetman was trying to stabilize his damaged fishing boat, but was talking directly to the kronosaur now.  "Yer not s'pose to be in this area!" he admonished it.  From his invective, the Freelancers gathered these creatures were native to Kizil but spent more time in the depths.
• The Sea elf cried out, in Elvish, "Extremely-Shiny-Teeth, attack the boat.  I would never do this, you know, but to save you from the horrible mouth breathers."  The kronosaurus replied, also in Elvish, "I don't like how this feels, Seralynn, but I will sink this boat for you."  
• The kronosaurus smashed the boat.  Dryali called out warningly in Elvish, "We won't be able to save your friend Westthuis, if you keep this up!"  Seralynn replied, "He knew what could happen!"

Westthuis was bleeding out on Isgrigg's boat at Dryali's feet as Fine Branch had the spiritual weapon ring of rubber smack Seralynn with force.  She followed up with toll the dead, but the bell sounded even more plaintive as it had no effect.

• Dryali had the protector cannon bolster everyone again, as he moved to the front of the boat and sent the second block to bludgeon Seralynn with catapult, interrupting her dominate beast.
• Tahu pulled out his healer's kit and stabilized Westthuis, then hid behind the rail like Terrance had been doing.
  • While he was doing that, Dryali called out in Elvish, "Swim away, Extremely-Shiny-Teeth!"  The kronosaurus let out a hiss, deep and bassy.
• Tuala sent another round of magic missile at Seralynn.
• Terrance shot Seralynn with another arrow.
• Seralynn healed herself, then shape shifted into a giant octopus and swam under Arbetman's boat.
  
• The kronosaurus, Ídsíla Carach (for such is Extremely-Shiny-Teeth in Elvish), attacked Isgrigg's boat again,  The bite was rebuffed but its tail smashed the boat, which started to sink, to Isgrigg's dismay.
• Dryali realized he was going to have to use thunder, and cried out, "Swim!  Swim to the other boat!"  The crew all dove in and swam to the other boat.

Fine Branch dove into the water, and swam towards the druids and Ídsíla Carach.  She brought down the bane of The Cat on them all – Westthuis, Seralynn, Ídsíla Carach.  Seralynn shrugged it off.  The doppelgänger disappeared.

• Dryali cast shatter right over the kronosaurus' head, the high pitched sound carrying far in the water, hurting Ídsíla Carach and giving many a headache.  "I told you to swim away, Extremely-Shiny-Teeth," he said to the creature in Elvish.  He turned to the other Freelancers.  "Next, I will sink this boat with thunderwave," he told them.
  • "Please do not!" Isgrigg cried from the other boat.
• Tahu jumped in the water off the port side of the sinking boat and attacked Ídsíla Carach with his magical shortsword and daggar.
• Tuala sank a firebolt in the kronosaurus, then held his nose and jumped in the water again.
• Terrance knew the giant octopus was under Arbetman's boat.  She looked for holes to attack it through, but found nothing so she dove gracefully into the water.  Swimming to the giant octopus, she attacked it with her magical scimitar, slashing it.  Then she climbed back into the boat and hid.
• The giant octopus let go of the boat, and swam to Fine Branch, attacking her and grappling her with its many arms.
• Ídsíla Carach tried to bite Tahu, but missed.  It smacked Tahu with its tail, but Tahu uncannily dodged to avoid the brunt of the damage.
• All the crew was in Arbetman's boat, and they put themselves to good use repairing it.

Fine Branch had the spiritual weapon attack the giant octopus grappling her with force.  She uttered a word of radiance but it did nothing to the giant octopus.  She complained about not having any of the bolster from the protector cannon in Isgrigg's boat.

• Dryali cast a firebolt at the kronosaurus, then (having misgivings about this choice), removed the protector cannon from where it was bolstering the Freelancers fighting Ídsíla Carach, and threw it in the water next to Fine Branch, so the nekomata could enjoy its benefits before it sank.
• Tahu again attacked the kronosaurus with his magical shortsword & daggar.  It was starting to bleed a lot in the water.
• Tuala cast magic missile at Ídsíla Carach, who exclaimed "Stupid mouth breathers!" in Elvish.  So Tuala cast magic missile again.
• Terrance dove off Arbetman's crowded boat again, and attacked the giant octopus with her magical scimitar, slashing it badly and turning it back into a bloodied Sea elf.  Terrance swam back to the boat and tried to hide again.
• Fine Branch asked Seralynn, who was still holding her, "Are you thinking about making this official?"  Seralynn, who did not speak Trade, ignored her, and cast pass without trace on herself and the kronosaurus.  "Run away, Extremely-Shiny-Teeth!" she called out in Elvish, and then she tried to hide under Arbetman's boat again.
• Ídsíla Carach dove, but critfailed stealth so the trail of blood was obvious to the watching Freelancers.

Fine Branch moved the spiritual weapon to attack Seralynn with force, and followed up with  guiding bolt to burn her with holy radiance.  She also swam after Seralynn, but Fine Branch was slow in the water.

• Dryali, now the protector cannon was gone, created a force ballista, with fins so it could swim this time.  It fired on Seralynn, the force punching her in the gills and taking her out.
  • Ídsíla Carach cried out in Elvish, "No! Seralynn …!!!"
  • Dryali called to Terrance, in Elvish so the kronosaurus would understand, "Terrance, we need to get her, before she drifts away and dies!"  Terrance acknowledged the call.
• Tahu saw how unhappy Ídsíla Carach was, but given the distances, couldn't do much about it.  He readied his weapons in case the kronosaurus returned.
• Tuala was not interested in waiting for the creature to return.  He cast twice-uplevel'd magic missile at Ídsíla Carach far below, leaving the kronosaurus very hurt.
• Terrance easily swam down to the drifting Sea elf, grabbed her, and brought her back to Arbetman's boat.  Seralynn was bleeding badly.
• Ídsíla Carach swam back up to attack the readied Tahu, who swung his magical shortsword.  But Tahu was not that ready, or maybe the water threw him off, anyhow Tahu critfailed, slashing his own leg instead.  Then the kronosaurus bit Tahu, who dodged uncannily, and smacked him with its tail, so Tahu was pretty badly injured.
• The fishermen were making good progress on Arbetman's boat repairs.  Isgrigg's boat, with only Dryali and Westthuis on it, was listing badly.

Fine Branch saw the kronosaurus attacking Tahu and grimaced.  She punched the water in front of her and cast another twice-uplevel'd guiding bolt.  The bolt looked like a cat's paw fist made of light, travelling to Ídsíla Carach, and punched it in the back, taking it out.

Dryali cast cure wounds on Tahu, and hauled him out of the water onto the listing boat.  Then, having no more spells at his disposal, he converted the all-purpose tool to carpenter's tools and started working to repair the boat.

Fine Branch joined him, and between shape water cantrip and create or destroy water spell, they kept the boat up as Isgrigg's crew returned and started repairs in earnest.

In Arbetman's boat, Terrance stabilized Seralynn.

Fine Branch and Dryali wanted to stabilize Ídsíla Carach, especially since it seemed sentient.  Since they were helping with the boat and Tahu was not, Tahu stabilized the kronosaurus.  He suggested they drag it back with them, in a fishing net.  Isgrigg agreed to doing so.

Once the repairs were done enough that her help wasn't needed, Fine Branch divested the unconscious Sea elves of their druidic focus and armband of fish command.  She also relieved them of their other belongings.

Dryali took issue with that.  "We are not here to mug elves!" he declared.  Tahu said, "Why not?" and Fine Branch got angry.  "These tried to kill us, using some of these items in the process!" she exclaimed.

So Dryali was overruled, and the Freelancers pulled a 100gp pearl and 100gp piece of coral off Westthuis, and an amulet and a bag of holding off Seralynn.  In the bag of holding was

• 1 pearl worth 100gp
• 1 agate worth 1000gp
• 4 potion of healing
• 3 potion of greater healing
• Slippers
• 2500gp in assorted platinum, gold, and silver coins

The agate tripped a memory for Dryali and Tuala; it was used in the spell awaken, which explained how Ídsíla Carach was sentient and spoke Elvish, and only Elvish.

By this time the boats were repaired enough to return, and the other two boats actually had some fish, so they started heading back to Halysraft.

On the way back, Dryali and Tahu started discussing the disposition of the Sea elves; Dryali wasn't happy just bringing them to the Marshal, and Tahu really thought they should bring them to Buhayra.  Meanwhile in Arbetman's boat, Fine Branch had concluded that Ídsíla Carach was best handled by bringing it to Nemea and Delev, who would know how to handle plesiosaur beasts and also awakened beasts.  Studying the amulet and slippers, Fine Branch deduced she held amulet of proof against detection and location and slippers of spider climbing, and puzzled over why the Sea elf would have the latter.

* * session break * *

By the time they got back to Halysraft, it was midafternoon.  Terrance had manacled Seralynn, and Dryali had manacled Westthuis; Fine Branch and Dryali had used ritual casts of detect magic to make sure the druids's items had the correct magical "signatures" and weren't rigged for easy tracking.  Once back at the docks, the Freelancers discussed what to do with the Sea elves, to get the information they needed out of them.  There was some notion of holding them in such a way that all three of them could communicate, but still be monitored.

Dryali was looking at Ídsíla Carach, and feeling bad, "I can go to the plesiosaur people," he suggested, not least of which because he was out of spells and not useful for doing anything with the prisoners.

"Keep them separate," Fine Branch advised.  "Can they write?" Terrance wondered.  "How, underwater?" Tahu puzzled, "Ink won't work."

Tahu wanted to take them to Buhayra.  "Who besides the Marshal knows?"

Tuala:  people we saw at the inn.
Dryali:  take these back to Buhayra?  Or, take to the Marshal?
Fine Branch:  go to Buhayra without them, and find out; let the Buhayrans know if we don't return, [the prisoners] die.
Tuala:  if we go that far underwater…

Much as they wished otherwise, the overheard conversations at The Sea Horse's Fin and their other conversations with folks in Halysraft had made it clear the Sea elves brought the trade caravan to Halysraft, not the other way around.  Moreover, the most recent caravan was long overdue.

The conversation was going nowhere.  Dryali said again, "I'm going to the plesiosaur place," and took off for the north end of Halysraft.  It was a short walk, after all.  Nemea and Delev were there, and the Dark elf waved as he approached.

Nemea:  you didn't show up last night!  You gonna help?
Dryali:  you're not off course.
Nemea <shook her head>:  ...no, actually.
Dryali:  so, we caught who was doing this
<Nemea and Delev gave Dryali their full attention.>
Dryali:  they were Sea elf druids, with armband of fish command, commanding the plesiosaurs to go off course.

Nemea and Delev were happy at the news, suspicious of the druids, and, of course, interested in the armband of fish command.  But wait, there is more!

Dryali:  one of them… has awakened a kronosaur, and ...we have that, too.
Nemea and Delev <at once>:  oh no
Nemea:  it must be young!  A full-grown kronosaur is too big for the awaken spell to work on.
Dryali <sarcastically>:  it wasn't quite as big as the killer whale.
Delev:  that's still young!
Dryali <blinking behind his goggles>:  well, we have it knocked out… and you are the only people we know to ask for help.

Delev and Nemea exchanged an extremely long look that contained a silent but epic conversation.

Dryali:  oh, do you speak Elvish?  ...its name is Extremely-Shiny-Teeth, in Elvish.
Nemea <clapping her hands in delight>:  Ídsíla Carach!  That is so cute!
Delev <smiling>:  yes, it is!  <sigh>  I will set up an area!
Nemea:  I will return with you, and see what I can do with this young kronosaur.

While Dryali was doing that, the other four Freelancers were still discussing what to do with their Sea elf prisoners.  They'd concluded to keep them separate, and would talk to Koetya about the use of her shed; they were considering if Fine Branch could alternate subjecting them to zone of truth and silence.

Fine Branch was enamoured of this idea.  She went to the pearl divers' docks, and Koetya and Edmund were there, with some of the others.  Koetya said sure, when asked about the shed.

Fine Branch:  do you have anything like a giant lazy susan?
Koetya:  no.
Fine Branch:  it's like a platform, that spins –
Koetya:  also, the sharkskin leather will be ready tomorrow, and maybe also the turtle shell.
Fine Branch:  lazy susan makes skinning the sharks easier!
Koetya:  still no.

By this time, Dryali and Nemea had arrived at the fisherman's dock.  {We do not have recorded for posterity, how she reacted to the astoundingly sunburned Terrance, Tuala, and Tahu.}  They greeted her, and before walking over to  Ídsíla Carach, Dryali pointed out, "Westthuis doesn't know we have Seralynn; we could convince him she is dead and… or, have him convince Seralyn…"  his voice trailed off.

He took Nemea over to where the unconscious kronosaur was floating in the water.  The fisherman had moved the bindings to the docks instead of their boat.  Ídsíla Carach's maw was firmly tied shut, but not so tight to prevent breathing.  The Wind sagani knelt and looked, her feathered headband fluttering in the breeze, while the other Freelancers caught up, including Fine Branch.

Nemea stood up.  "Okay, this kronosaur is definitely still a juvenile," she started, and pointed along Ídsíla Carach's body.  "She is a little bit malnourished; not starving, but a little too lean for her age.  They should have been hunting her more."

Fine Branch offered, "We could, perhaps, find the parents," and Nemea hesitated.  "Not to put back," she added hastily.

"Suggest you not," Nemea said firmly, "Probably something bad happened.  Either Ídsíla Carach was stolen, or her parents slain."  She regarded the floating form thoughtfully.  "I'm not sure, but I think we can get this kronosaur… get her a little healthier."

Nemea:  do you know their purpose, why she was awakened?
Tuala:  not really
Dryali:  it was clear the druid had not used the armband of fish command on it; she apologised when she used it.
Nemea:  ...oh
Tahu:  it called us 'mouth breather'
Nemea:  ...oh
Tahu:  it might not like us when it wakes up.  <pause>  it might really not like me; I used the armband <gestures> before we realized it was sentient.
Nemea:  I think I can handle it.  I speak Elvish… it might be difficult to deal with prejudice against surface creatures, but Delev and I can handle it.
Nemea <looks at armband>:  I'm willing to part with 800gp for that armband.
Terrance:  not a lot of places we can use it.
Nemea:  I know 800gp is a bit low, but we'll need funds to handle Extremely-Shiny-Teeth, and her diet.
<Nemea smiled as she sounded out the name in Trade.>
Dryali:  how do we get Ídsíla Carach over there?
Nemea:  don't worry about it

The Freelancers agreed to sell Nemea one of the armband of fish command, and were 800gp wealthier by the time Delev appeared, quite dramatically, riding a plesiosaur and with two others in train behind him.  He too looked at the kronosaur and tsk'd over how underfed she was.  Then he and Nemea rode away, towing Ídsíla Carach to her new home.

The Freelancers started carrying the unconscious Sea elves to the pearl divers' dock.  They'd decided to interrogate Westthuis first.

Dryali:  what to get, from Westthuis?
Fine Branch:  we know the mechanics, but what was the Osprey getting out of it?
Terrance:  also, what was the goal in awakening the kronosaur.
Tahu:  maybe the Osprey could take over the Buhayra trading relationship?  Also, raid Halysraft.
Fine Branch:  "good cop bad cop" is the way to do this.
Dryali:  what do we tell him about Seralynn?
Fine Branch:  nothing.
Dryali:  what if he asks?
Fine Branch:  play dumb.

By then they were at the shed, and put the two Sea elves on the deck, to think about the arrangement.  Their green skin was dull in the dry air, and their kelp-coloured hair hung limply around their shoulders.  Fine Branch declared, "Don't want him to see anyone but me."  The others frowned at this, but then she explained she could set up zone of truth, and use the doppelgänger within, so as to avoid the constraint on veracity.

Then she changed her mind.  "Actually, do Seralynn first," she directed.  The Freelancers set it all up:  put Seralynn on a chair, back to the door, so everyone can watch; Fine Branch cast zone of truth; then cast tongues on herself, since she did not know Elvish; then sent in the doppelgänger to cast cure wounds on Seralynn, so they could have a nice chat. Everyone could follow but Tahu, who also did not know Elvish.

Fine Branch:  so glad you are awake and seem to be okay!  I wish I could do more for your wounds, but I am not allowed.
Fine Branch:  I've been sent in to find out what I can, without applying too much pressure…
<Fine Branch waxed eloquent about mistreated prisoners.>
Fine Branch:  but, I refuse to do that; it's not how I work.
Seralynn:  I don't really want to be tortured either, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made for the good of the thalassa!
Fine Branch:  tell me about that.  How is this <gestures> good for the thalassa?
Seralynn:  drives you mouth breathers off!
Fine Branch:  I understand you don't want us there, then.  How is that good?
<Seralynn launched into an impassioned rant about oyster harvesting and the kelp.>
Seralynn:  with you gone, Buhayra will be better off!
Fine Branch:  we are not all bad.  ...I was able to convince others to save Extremely-Shiny-Beak, is that the kronosaurus' name?
Seralynn:  Extremely-Shiny-Teeth!  I'm glad she is okay!  You should leave, and let Extremely-Shiny-Teeth go.  Extremely-Shiny-Teeth knows not to trust mouth breathers.
Fine Branch <closing eyes briefly>:  it's more productive to work out your concerns, than tell us to leave.
<Seralynn launched into another fanatical rant about how thalassae are for water breathers>
Fine Branch:  I'm going to have to leave.  You think about this; my superiors are not going to be happy.

At this, the doppelgänger walked out.  Dryali and Terrance gave Fine Branch a side-eye, then Dryali pulled out a parchment and wrote, "Fine Branch, find out about Buhayra."  Fine Branch lifted an eyebrow at Dryali, whether confused at the note or impressed with Dryali's neat, tiny script, it wasn't clear.  Dryali wrote, "Related."  Fine Branch nodded, and scrawled "OK."

The doppelgänger disapparated, and Fine Branch sighed voicelessly.  She walked back into the shed, and said, "I was able to get more time.  I don't really care about 'mouth breather' stuff.  I have a question about other mouth breathers who helped you.  What did they do and what were they trying to get out of this?"

Seralynn glared at Fine Branch, then declared, "The Osprey, captained by a mouth breather, had a druid able to persuade her to our plight!  ...in addition to the armbands, she also provided two agates."  Fine Branch's ears flicked back ever-so-slightly at this; the Sea elf definitely believed that the Rain sagani persuaded the captain that the air breathers did not belong on the thalassa, and had sought her out.

Terrance grabbed the parchment from Dryali, and wrote, "Get his name!" on it, large.  She held it up so Fine Branch could see.  Fine Branch cocked her head a little.  Terrance looked at it, then wrote it again, in Trade this time, not Elvish.

Fine Branch:  what was his name?
Seralynn <dreamily>:  even though he is an air breather, Aseiran Barshana is a very handsome Rain sagani, with blue skin, black eyes, sea kelp hair in a half-bun...
<Terrance drew a heart on her sign, and held it up>
Fine Branch:  sounds like this person is very special to you.
Seralynn:  ...he had an osprey tattoo on his left front shoulder, leaves blowing in the wind across his upper back and upper arm…
<Dryali grimaced and also pointed at the heart on the sign>
Fine Branch:  so he was special to you.
Seralynn:  yes.  He couldn't stay very long, but he was very nice while he was here.
Fine Branch:  that's lovely, I'm glad you had that.
<Seralynn smiled.>
Fine Branch:  one of the things I've been asked to find out is where we might find him.  If we do, I wonder if you have a message you might want us to pass on to him.
Seralynn:  oh, I don't think I trust you well enough to tell you where he was, even if I knew!

Terrance drew a tooth, under the heart, and held it up again.  Fine Branch shook her head ever so slightly.  Dryali grabbed it back, and wrote "Why" on the tooth.

Fine Branch:  they told me you were fond of Extremely-Shiny-Teeth.  Why?
Seralynn:  she's been very ... helping disrupting trade with Buhayra.  She's very enthusiastic and there's nothing more effective at stopping a caravan than a kronosaurus.
Fine Branch <feigning shock and impression>: has Extremely-Shiny-Teeth killed anyone with the caravans?
Seralynn:  no, of course we have not had Extremely-Shiny-Teeth kill any of the Sea elves, that would be counter to the goal!   ...Extremely-Shiny-Teeth injured a couple plesiosaurs.
Fine Branch:  plesiosaurs are of the thalassa.
Seralynn:  I had to talk to her, not to eat.
Fine Branch:  she hasn't been able to eat as much as she wants.
Seralynn:  we haven't had a lot of time for food.  It's a lot of hard work to drive off the air breathers!  ...we feed her a lot of our food.
Fine Branch:  what happened to the disrupted caravans?
Seralynn:  they turned back.
Fine Branch:  when did you awaken Extremely-Shiny-Teeth?
Seralynn <thinking back>: about 2 primes into the year.
<Fine Branch decided to figure out how she met the druid and if he's to return.>
Fine Branch:  tell me about your time with Aseiran.  Are you expecting him to return?
Seralynn:  <happy to talk about Aseiran> he implied he would return, but it's been a quarter.
Fine Branch:  did he say he'd return on a condition?
Seralynn:  no, but he did say he was going to try to free other thalassae.
Fine Branch:  how did you guys meet?
Seralynn:  they sent animal messengers, then the Osprey came landing.
Fine Branch <marvelling>:  how did they know?
Seralynn:  they were looking for freedom-loving druid fighting against the air breathers
<Dryali and Terrance rolled their eyes, and Tahu rose>
Fine Branch:  no, wait!

Tahu bonked Seralynn on the back of the head.  He did not need to know the language to understand she'd gone into another fanatical rant.

Both the Sea elves were again unconscious.  As the Freelancers set up Westthuis in the shed, they caught Tahu up on what had been said, to and by Seralynn.

They put Westthuis on the chair; Fine Branch set up zone of truth, but she had no more doppelgänger to use, and had to sit in there herself.  She cast cure wounds on Westthuis, and opened with

Fine Branch:  so glad you're awake!  Looks like you took a beating out there.  Sorry I can't do more, but I'm not allowed.

Westthuis' face turned mulish; he was disinclined to cooperate.  Perhaps it was Fine Branch's physical presence betraying her insincerity.  Perhaps it was her reminding Westthuis that he'd taken a beating.  But most likely it was the persuasion critfail.

Westthuis:  do what you will!  I will suffer any horribleness for freeing the thalassa from your mouth breatherness!
Fine Branch:  alright, have it your way.  We've been instructed not to hurt a hair on your head, but I'll have to report this back to the people holding Seralynn and Jajuna, and I'm not sure they'll not be hurt.
<Westthuis reacted more strongly to Jajuna's name.>
Westthuis:  they would sacrifice for the freedom of the thalassa, too!!
Fine Branch:  Jajuna fought bravely, and I greatly admire he spirit, but she was sent in without much preparation against a far better prepared foe.
Westthuis:  …
Fine Branch:  should you doubt this… <described Seralynn romanticizing about Aseiran> ...think about, what it took to get her to say that.
<Westthuis glared, especially at mention of Aseiran>
Fine Branch:  and what about Extremely-Shiny-Teeth?
Westthuis:  Extremely-Shiny-Teeth knows how important our cause is, and we hope you suffer for hurting her at all!
Fine Branch:  I personally took great pains to convince the others not to harm Extremely-Shiny-Teeth.
<Westthuis fell silent, glaring at Fine Branch.>
Fine Branch:  but the fact is, all four of you are caught, and your cause is dead.  There's nobody to carry it on, and nobody will know what happened to you.
Westthuis:  …
Dryali <from the doorway>:  this one is a lost cause!
Fine Branch <in Trade>:  I've done what I can, here.  Perhaps you should go prepare the others.

Fine Branch stood up and left the glaring Westthuis.  He was still glaring, and testing the restraints, when Tahu bonked him on the head with the pommel of his magical daggar.

The Daystar was westering when the Freelancers dragged the unconscious Sea elves to the Marshal.  The Freelancers waited near the plants, out of the Daystar's rays, while Chelbesa came out, surprised and unhappy, and told them, "I've not got cells prepped, but I hope they'll hold!"  

He continued, "I sent a message via sending stone to Buhayra.  They've not heard of these druids!  No anti-air-breathing druids at all.  I will send again tonight, of course."

Fine Branch then relayed what they found out from interrogating the Sea elves.  Dryali explained that Ídsíla Carach, the awakened young kronosaur, was in care of Nemea.

Tuala:  maybe the Osprey druid is known to Buhayra.
Tahu:  do we need to be prisoner escort with the next caravan?
Chelbesa:  we'll have someone from Buhayra come get them, special.  It's on them to deal with druids who have been fucking shit up!  <looks at the sunburned Freelancers>  They are perhaps better equipped, to deal with Sea elf druids.
Fine Branch:  we'd not have more to do, than once an hour.
Chelbesa:  no; this is on them.

Chelbesa and his seconds took custody of Seralynn and Westthuis and did their best to get them settled in separate holding cells.  When he was done, he went into his office for a while, then emerged carrying a handheld vault.

"I sent again to Buhayra," he told the Freelancers, "They did know about the kronosaurus, and they are gonna come get the druids.  Here, bring out your badges, I will put the 500gp on them directly."  They did so, one by one, and he admonished them, "Don't forget to give the Freelancers' Cut to Arnari –"

"We're not going back to Duquesne," Tahu said.  "Yeah, going to Commerce," said Terrance.  "Oh, I don't know then, perhaps give it to Damakaios," the Marshal said.

"Actually, would you know of any airships bound there?" Tuala asked.  The Marshal looked thoughtful, but waited until he was done dispensing their fee until he answered.  "There aren't a lot, actually," he started, "But three mornings from now, the Abilunon will stop here as part of a supply run; it will go to Waypoint Dart, then on to Commerce.  They should have berthing space, but that's a long travel.  Far easier to get to Pembroke right now."

The Freelancers thanked him, then took their leave and headed to The Sea Horse's Fin for early dinner.  Afterwards, they went straight to their beds, since all had acquired a sailing sunburn, having spent another 7 hours out on the water this day.

• Terrance → lvl 6!
• Tahu → lvl 6!

The morning of day one, the exhausted Freelancers had a leisurely breakfast.  They had no intention of adventuring, but were considering the disposition of the two remaining armband of fish command.  They figured the pearl divers would be most interested, so when they returned to get the sharkskin leather and the turtle shell pieces, they raised the issue to Koetya.

Koetya and Edmund were both very interested in the armband, considering them to be good insurance against any further encounters with angry snapping turtles.  They went into their "secure" shed and brought out pearls to trade for them.  In the end the Freelancers walked away minus two armband of fish command and plus 19 100gp pearls.

That evening, as Nemostag ended and Sieratag began, Koetya returned their bedrolls; she merely told them things were progressing with Ídsíla Carach, but it was best they not come see and provoke the young kronosaurus, which was fine with all the Freelancers.

The following day, they took thought about their upcoming travel, and the unclaimed items they had acquired.  Here's the final split:

• Tahu:  slippers of spider climbing, 1 greater healing potion
• Tuala:  1 greater healing potion, 1 healing potion
• Fine Branch:  bag of holding, amulet of proof against detection and location
• Dryali:  the 1000gp agate, 1 healing potion
• Terrance:  1 greater healing potion, 1 healing potion
• Everyone:  5 100gp pearls or their value each
• Coin to split:  800gp (Nemea) + 2500gp (was in bag of holding)
• Materials to each: 120gp worth sharkskin, 250gp worth turtleshell, (note shark teeth worth 30gp picked up earlier)

Dryali had wanted the bag of holding, but really mostly because he did not want to continue looking ridiculous, hauling his giant elk antlers around the airship docks and wherever else they were visiting before they settled at the Ripa Daneo Freelancers Tavern.  He had no idea how Damakaois looked but was cringing at the reaction of any Freelancers leader meeting him like that.  He asked Fine Branch if she would at least temporarily keep the antlers in the bag of holding.

Fine Branch finally got rid of the chud in the two buckets.

Dryali spent part of the day shopping.  He bought a cobbler's glue pot, some plesiosaur leather, black dye, and waterproofed waxed thread appropriate for leatherworking, for 35gp.  Tahu visited the airship docks to get a rough idea when the Abilunon would arrive; he found out the air elemental airship was already there.  Captain Reagan, a human woman, informed him it would depart in the morning, as a more favorable time to travel to Waypoint Dart, their next stop.  They were back in plenty of time for dinner, at which time Sieratag became Petraag.  Chelbesa had dinner with them; he also gave them a scroll to deliver to Damakaios.

The next morning, the Freelancers took berths on the Abilunon, and bade farewell to the thalassa as it took off for Waypoint Dart, anticipated to be a full prime's travel.  Once it crossed the thalassa boundary, it pivoted sharply starboard and inward for a few hours, then settled into smooth travel.

Dryali stayed busy, and tried not to think about how his sunburned skin had darkened.  He was doing something with the sharkskin leather and cobblers' tools; after a few days, they ran into a storm, and he set it aside.  The storm made for a poor Fulcrum Holiday, but none of the Freelancers got airsick.  When the smooth travel resumed, Dryali got one of his giant elk antlers out of the bag of holding, and started cutting strips off it, carefully weaving them together.

Fine Branch tried practicing her Primordial by talking to the air elemental, which made Captain Reagan laugh at first, but after a bit she helped the nekomata understand, even through the elemental's accent.  Perhaps inspired by this, Terrance asked Tuala to start teaching her the basics of Sylvan.  Tuala was happy to do so, as long as they were on deck watching the various skyliths and thalassae.

Tahu did his best to learn shiphandling from the clue.  A sagani has to have goals, after all!

After a prime, they were at Waypoint Dart.  It is inward of Kizil, and its orbit is just elliptical enough that it crosses the shear wall into the skyway, but it's tilted enough to be out of the way.  So some airship captains like it because they can avoid the risk of the boundary and enjoy the skyway speed boost.  The tilt, though, makes the trip to get there longer in the first place.

The Abilunon stopped there with supplies (including fish from Kizil) and for transhipping, picking up Commerce-bound cargo.  Once it was secured, the Waypoint personnel raised up a long metal pole to the side of it, half again as tall as the highest point of the airship.  Of course the Freelancers helped with loading, and of course they looked for any Daystar lotion; but there was none.  The skylith was maybe 8 miles across, and mostly forested; the tree mix looked like temperate rainforest, with many conifers.  Birds darted in and about.

The Abilunon stayed overnight and left the later part of the next day.  Before the Daystar would have set, the little skylith crossed the shear wall and was inundated with squalls, and then emerged from that into a breeze.  While they were sleeping, it crossed back out again, and the next morning the Daystar was shining down on the happy forest.  After breakfast, Terrance spent the morning wandering about, entranced by the trees!  So many varieties were new to the firbolg, the treetops singing in the breeze.

Late that day, after the squall had passed, the Abilunon took off; after crossing the skylith boundary they were in the skyway, heading for Commerce.

The Abilunon stayed in the skyway for four days; it was not as turbulent as when they had journeyed to Kizil, but the last day was bad enough that Dryali, who had resumed weaving strips of giant elk antler together, set it aside.

They emerged through the shear wall and started going inward and port, changing the orbital plane; the airship was graced with smooth weather.  Kizil was far above.  Pembroke was nowhere to be seen.

After a couple more days, Dryali had a pair of nice shark skin boots, and it was clear he was working on boots of elvenkind.

Five days later – Sieratag, 2nd prime post-Fulcrum – they were approaching Commerce, which looked like a large prickly ball with a bite taken out of it.  As they approached, they saw other airship traffic as well.  The Freelancers peered over the rail at what appeared to be a group of medium-sized birds; on closer look, it was a garuda Skyguard patrol.  90 degrees counter clockwise from them, Dryali saw a familiar sight, and pointed it out to the other Freelancers:  a Pteroti patrol.

Some hours later, the Abilunon was settled in a docking hammock reaching out over the crater wall.  Fanning out below were more such hammocks, many with airships in them.  Eastward, to the right, the crowded buildings of North Ripa Daneo clung, seemingly precariously, to the crater walls for miles.  Above loomed the villas of the ancient Houses.  To the west was a mighty gorge that seemed to split the crater wall; the river carving it ended in a waterfall down to where the wall curved more gently outward to the broad valley north.  Beyond it were more docks and buildings, but something slightly off about the architecture.

The Freelancers debarked from the airship, thanking Captain Reagan, and headed up to the rim, to seek out the Ripa Daneo Freelancers Tavern on the south side of the city.

* * fin * *